President Hugo Chavez was a fighter. The former paratroop commander and fiery populist waged continual battle for his socialist ideals and outsmarted his rivals time and again, defeating a coup attempt, winning re-election three times and using his country’s vast oil wealth to his political advantage.A self-described “subversive,” Chavez fashioned himself after the 19th Century independence leader Simon Bolivar and renamed his country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.He called himself a “humble soldier” in a battle for socialism and against U.S. hegemony. He thrived on confrontation with Washington and his political opponents at home, and used those conflicts to rally his followers.President Chavez talks to media operatives on arrival at the UNASUR summit in Guyana in 2009Almost the only adversary it seemed he couldn’t beat was cancer. He died yesterday in Caracas at 4:25 local time after his prolonged illness. He was 58.During more than 14 years in office, his leftist politics and grandiose style polarized Venezuelans. The barrel-chested leader electrified crowds with his booming voice, and won admiration among the poor with government social programs and a folksy, nationalistic style.His opponents seethed at the larger-than-life character that demonized them on television and ordered the expropriation of farms and businesses. Many in the middle class cringed at his bombast and complained about rising crime, soaring inflation and government economic controls.Chavez used his country’s vast oil wealth to launch social programs that included state-run food markets, new public housing, free health clinics and education programs. Poverty declined during Chavez’s presidency amid a historic boom in oil earnings, but critics said he failed to use the windfall of hundreds of billions of dollars to develop the country’s economy.Inflation soared and the homicide rate rose to among the highest in the worldChavez paid a one-day visit to Guyana in February 2004 and assured his Guyanese counterpart Bharrat Jagdeo that he had no intention of pursuing claims for Essequibo, signaling the dawn of a new era in his country’s relations with Guyana with which it has had a longstanding border controversy.“The Essequibo issue will be removed from the framework of the social, political, economic relations between the two countries and we will tackle each issue from a different perspective based on mutual respect,Cheap China Jerseys Authentic,” said President Hugo Chavez.“The Venezuelan Government will not hinder any project to be conducted in (the Essequibo) whose purpose is to benefit the inhabitants of the area. By that I mean projects like water supply, communication roads, energy programmes, and agricultural programmes.“Any other sensitive projects that might be organized in the area, we are planning to immediately get in touch and review the projects together within the framework of the high level bilateral commission. We have to find the right way to tackle the problem,” The move was criticized by Former Venezuelan Attorney General, Jesus Petit Da Costa.Da Costa called Chavez a “traitor” for supposedly surrendering the south-eastern Essequibo region of Guyana,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, which has been traditionally claimed by Venezuela.“Chavez is doing the same as President Guzman, when he sold the Guajira and Casanare (western) Venezuela to the Colombians in exchange for joining his family to European nobility … this time Chavez did it in exchange for a vote in the Organization of American States (OAS).”Chavez’s move allowed Guyana to go ahead with developing the disputed region (two-thirds of Guyana).President Chavez during a recent visit by his daughters at a hospital in CubaAt the end of discussions with his Guyanese counterpart nine years ago, the former Venezuelan leader said that things have changed drastically from the “imperialist” thinking of the past and Venezuela now has “no kind of sentiment against Guyana whatsoever.”Evidence of the closer cooperation between the two countries were the cancellation of US$12.5M of the debt Guyana owed Venezuela, and the undertaking by President Chavez to favourably consider adjusting to terms and conditions of the Caracas Energy Cooperation Accord to make it compatible with Guyana’s obligations under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.Chavez and Jagdeo had also agreed to pursue poverty alleviation as well as infrastructure projects under the Hemispheric Integration Project.Before his struggle with cancer, he appeared on television almost daily, frequently speaking for hours and breaking into song or philosophical discourse. He often wore the bright red of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela, or the fatigu