Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan electoral officials say voters have narrowly elected Hugo Chavez’s hand-picked successor as president in a razor-close special election Sunday.

Winner Nicolas Maduro campaigned on a promise to carry on Chavez’s self-styled socialist revolution, and defeated a two-time challenger who claimed the late president’s regime has put Venezuelaon the road to ruin.

Officials say Maduro defeated Henrique Capriles by only about 300,000 votes. The margin was 50.8 percent to 49.1 percent.

CARACAS, Venezuela: Voters chose Sunday between the hand-picked successor who campaigned to carry on Hugo Chavez’s self-styled socialist revolution and an emboldened second-time challenger who warned that the late president’s regime has Venezuela on the road to ruin. Tensions rose soon after polls closed as both sides hinted at victory and suggested the other was plotting fraud.

Jorge Rodriguez, the head of the campaign for acting PresidentNicolas Maduro, said he couldn’t reveal the results before electoral authorities did but strongly suggested Maduro had won by smiling and summoning supporters to the presidential palace, where Chavez’s supporters gathered to celebrate the late president’s past victories. And he warned that Maduro’s camp would not allow the will of the people to be subverted.

Opposition challenger Henrique Capriles and his campaign aides immediately lashed out at Rodriguez’s comments.

Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, a Capriles campaign coordinator, suggested the government was trying to steal the election.

“They know perfectly well what happened and so do we,” he said at a hastily called news conference. “They are misleading their people and are trying to mislead the people of this country.”

Capriles also suggested fraud was in the works in a Twitter message: “We alert the country and the world of the intent to change the will of the people!”

In an earlier tweet, Capriles urged his supporters not to be “desperate and defeated.”

Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor and longtime U.S. ambassador-at-large who came to witness the election, told The Associated Press that both candidates had assured him they would respect the outcome of the vote.

“I’m not here as an election observer, but I met with both candidates — Maduro, yesterday, and Capriles today. And I’m hopeful because both told me they would respect the rule of law and the will of the people,” Richardson said.

Maduro, the 50-year-old longtime foreign minister to Chavez, pinned his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of government largesse and the powerful state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

Maduro’s campaign was mostly a near-religious homage to the man he called “the redeemer of the Americas,” who succumbed to cancer March 5. He blamed Venezuela’s myriad woes on vague plots by alleged saboteurs that the government never identified.

Capriles’ main campaign weapon was to simply emphasize “the incompetence of the state,” as he put it to reporters Saturday night.

Maduro’s big lead in opinion polls was cut in half over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of Chavez’s management of the world’s largest oil reserves.

Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe his government not only squandered, but plundered, much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his tenure.

Venezuelans are afflicted by chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages, and rampant crime. Venezuela has one of the world’s highest homicide and kidnapping rates.

“We can’t continue to believe in messiahs,” said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. “This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can’t fix everything.”

Voting lines seemed considerably lighter than in the October election that Chavez won, when more than 80 percent of the electorate turned out, although government officials said it was due to the improved efficiency of the system.

After polls closed there were moments of tension at some voting centers.

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelans will vote April 14 to choose a successor to Hugo Chavez, the elections commission announced Saturday as increasingly strident political rhetoric begins to roil this polarized country.

The constitution mandated the election be held within 30 days of Chavez’s March 5 death, but the date picked falls outside that period. Critics of the socialist government already complained that officials violated the constitution by swearing in Vice PresidentNicolas Maduro as acting leader Friday night.

Some people have speculated Venezuela will not be ready to organize the vote in time, but elections council chief Tibisay Lucena said the country’s electronic voting system was fully prepared.

Lucena announced the date on state television while a small inset in the picture showed people filing past Chavez’s coffin at the military academy in Caracas, where his body has lain in state since Wednesday.

Chavez’s boisterous state funeral Friday often felt like a political rally for his anointed successor, Maduro, who eulogized him by pledging eternal loyalty and vowing Chavez’s movement will never be defeated. Maduro is expected to run as the candidate of Chavez’s socialist party.

Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, coordinator of the opposition coalition, immediately followed the election announcement by offering his bloc’s presidential candidacy to Henrique Capriles, the governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in October. A Capriles adviser said the governor would announce his decision Sunday.

David Smilde, an analyst with the U.S.-based Washington Office on Latin America, said the opposition needs to run a candidate in the presidential election even though he believes it will almost certainly lose.

Smilde said he wasn’t sure Capriles will accept the candidacy.

“If he says he doesn’t want to run I could totally understand that,” Smilde said. “He is likely going to lose, and if he loses this election, he’s probably going to be done.”

In that case the opposition would be wise to run someone such as Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledesma or Henry Falcone, governor of Lara state and one of just three opposition governors, he said.

That would give the opposition an opportunity to clearly articulate its platform and vision.

“Really what this campaign would be about is allowing the opposition to put themselves in position for the future, to show that they have some ideas for the country,” Smilde said.

In his speech after his swearing-in Friday, Maduro took shots at the United States, the media, international capitalism and domestic opponents he often depicted as treacherous. He claimed the allegiance of Venezuela’s army, referring to them as the “armed forces of Chavez,” despite the constitution barring the military from taking sides in politics.

The opposition has denounced the transition as an unconstitutional power grab, while the government moves to immortalize Chavez. Since his death, the former paratrooper has been compared to Jesus Christ and early-19th century Venezuelan liberator Simon Bolivar, and the government announced that his body would be embalmed and put on eternal display.

Edith Palmeira, a 47-year-old Caracas resident at a park Saturday in central Caracas, said she would vote for Maduro, but made clear her allegiance was based purely on her love of Chavez.

“Imitations are never as good as the original,” Palmeira said. “But I think he must have grown as a person during so much time at the president’s side. He must have learned to be a president.”

Elvira Orozco, a 31-year-old business owner, said she planned to sit out the vote to protest Maduro’s swearing-in Friday.

“What they want is to say that here there’s a democracy, but here they violate the constitution and there’s no authority who says anything,” Orozco said.

Observers voiced mounting concern about the deep political divide gripping Venezuela, with half of it in a near frenzy of adulation and the other feeling targeted.

“Everything that happened yesterday (with the funeral and Maduro’s speech) are outward signs of a fascistic aesthetic, complete with armbands,” said Vicente Gonzalez de la Vega, a professor of law at Caracas’ Universidad Metropolitana. “It is the cult of the adored leader, an escape from reality. … They are trying to impose on the rest of the country a new pagan religion.”

He said the ruling party was playing with fire with its strong nationalistic rhetoric and the implication that a vote against Maduro was somehow subversive.

Capriles, too, has used emotionally charged language in his public comments. On Friday he denounced Maduro as a shameless liar who had not been elected by the people, and condescendingly referred to him as “boy.”

Opposition figures have said they are concerned about the election’s fairness, particularly given the public vows of allegiance to Chavez from senior military officials. Capriles lost to Chavez in Oct. 7 elections, but he garnered 45 percent of the vote, which was the most anyone had ever won against the late president.

A boycott of 2005 legislative elections was widely seen as disastrous for the opposition, letting Chavez’s supporters win all 167 seats and allowing him to govern unimpeded by any legislative rivals.

CARACAS, Venezuela: Nicolas Maduro was sworn in Friday as Venezuela’s acting president, using the occasion to launch blistering attacks on the U.S. as well as the political opposition, which objected that the ceremony violated the country’s constitution.

Late President Hugo Chavez designated Maduro as his successor before he died Tuesday of cancer. Maduro had been Chavez’s vice president.

The country’s 1999 constitution says the National Assembly speaker becomes interim president in the event of a president-elect’s death or inability to be sworn in. The constitution also says a presidential election should be called within 30 days.

Maduro has been picked as the presidential candidate of Chavez’s socialist party.

Opposition leader Angel Medina said earlier Friday that the opposition would boycott the swearing-in ceremony, and the vast majority of opposition legislators did not attend. Former U.S. presidential candidate, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, attended the ceremony as did Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

Stray fireworks exploded above the capital of Caracas as soon as Maduro was sworn in as president.

Both Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello pledged to follow Chavez’s example and push his socialist-inspired agenda.

“I swear by the most absolute loyalty to comrade Hugo Chavez that we will fulfill and see that it’s fulfilled the constitution … with the iron fist of a people ready to be free,” Maduro said.

He also echoed accusations he made shortly before Chavez’s death that the U.S. had caused the leader’s fatal cancer. On Friday night, he referred to “this illness very strange for the speed of its growth and for other scientific reasons that will be known in their moment.”

He later duplicated Chavez’s penchant for slamming “the empire,” his term for the United States.

“We tell them: Sooner than later, the imperialist elites who govern the United States will have to learn to live with absolute respect with the insurrectional people of the … Latin and Caribbean America,” he said.

Maduro also claimed the allegiance of Venezuela’s army, calling it “the armed forces of Chavez” as he pumped his fist in the air, a gesture that was reciprocated by the defense minister watching from the gallery. Critics have voiced increasing concern about the overt support the military has shown to the ruling party since Chavez’s death, despite a ban on the army’s participation in politics.

He later named Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza, Chavez’s son-in-law, as his vice president. Arreaza had frequently been at the side of the dying president in his final weeks, sometimes providing updates about his health.

Shortly before the swearing-in, opposition leader Henrique Capriles said Maduro had used Chavez’s funeral earlier in the day to campaign for the presidency. Capriles is widely expected to run against Maduro in the coming vote.

A former bus driver and union leader, Maduro had served as Chavez’s foreign minister and was often seen on television accompanying the president during cancer treatments in Cuba. Chavez named Maduro his No. 2 after winning his third re-election in October.

Since the death, Maduro was seen Wednesday leading a massive funeral cortege through the streets of Caracas as well as welcoming foreign dignitaries and delivering the eulogy at Friday’s funeral.

CARACAS, Venezuela: Hugo Chavez’s body will be preserved and forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace from which he ruled for 14 years, his successor announced Thursday in a Caribbean version of the treatment given Communist revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s acting head of state, said Chavez would first lie in state for “at least” seven more days before the museum becomes his permanent home. It was not clear when exactly he would be moved from the military academy where his body has been since Wednesday.

Later Thursday, the National Assembly speaker announced that Maduro would be sworn in Friday night as acting president following a state funeral and would call elections within 30 days. That enables him, as the designated governing party candidate, to run for president as Chavez desired. Legal scholars say that under the constitution, the legislature’s speaker should instead be sworn in and organize the vote.

More than 30 heads of government, including Cuban President Raul Castro and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are to attend the funeral. U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, and former Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, will represent the United States, which Chavez often portrayed as a great global evil even as he sent the country billions of dollars in oil each year.

Maduro said the ceremony would begin at 11 a.m., but did not say where.

“We have decided to prepare the body of our ‘Comandante President,’ to embalm it so that it remains open for all time for the people. Just like Ho Chi Minh. Just like Lenin. Just like Mao Zedong,” Maduro said.

He said the body would be held in a “crystal urn” at the Museum of the Revolution, a mile from Miraflores presidential palace.

The announcement followed two emotional days in which Chavez’s supporters compared him to Jesus Christ, and accused his national and international critics of seeking to undermine his “revolution.”

A sea of sobbing, heartbroken humanity jammed Venezuela’s main military academy Thursday to see Chavez’s body, some waiting 10 hours under the twinkling stars and the searing Caribbean sun to file past his coffin.

On Thursday night, Castro, Presidents Jose Mujica of Uruguay and and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil viewed the open casket along with former Brazilian president Inacio Lula da Silva.

But even as his supporters attempted to immortalize the dead president, a country exhausted from round-the-clock mourning began to look toward the future. Some worried openly whether the nation’s anointed leaders are up to filling his shoes, and others said they were anxious for news on when elections will be held. The constitution mandates they be called within 30 days, but the government has yet to address the matter.

“People are beginning to get back to their lives. One must keep working,” said 40-year-old Caracas resident Laura Guerra, a Chavez supporter who said she was not yet sold on Maduro. “I don’t think he will be the same. I don’t think he has the same strength that the ‘comandante’ had.”

At the military academy, Chavez lay in a glass-covered coffin wearing the olive-green military uniform and red beret of his paratrooper days and looking gaunt and pale, his lips pressed together. In a nod to the insecurity that plagues this country, mourners had to submit to a pat down, pass through a metal detector and remove the batteries from their mobile phones before they entered.

As they reached the coffin, many placed a hand on their heart or stiffly saluted. Some held up children so they could see Chavez’s face.

“I waited 10 hours to see him, but I am very happy, proud to have seen my comandante,” said 46-year-old Yudeth Hurtado, sobbing. “He is planted in our heart.”

Government leaders had been largely incommunicado Wednesday as they marched in a seven-hour procession that brought Chavez’s body from a military hospital to the academy. They finally emerged before the cameras Thursday but offered no answers.

Asked when an election would be held, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said only that the constitution would be followed.

Jaua also struck the defiant, us-against-the-world tone that the government has projected, which some critics fear could incite passions in a country that remains on edge.

“They couldn’t defeat him electorally, they couldn’t assassinate him, they couldn’t beat him militarily,” Jaua declared. “Chavez died as president … Chavez died the leader of his people.”

Just hours before the 58-year-old president’s death on Tuesday, Maduro expelled two U.S. diplomats and lashed out at opponents at home and abroad. He implied that the cancer that ultimately killed Chavez was somehow injected into him by his enemies, a charge echoed by Ahmadinejad.

While Maduro is the clear favorite over likely opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, the nation is polarized between Chavez supporters and critics who hold him responsible for soaring inflation, a growing national debt and a jump in violent crime.

Opponents have also questioned the government’s allegiance to the rule of law, arguing that Maduro is not entitled to become interim president under the 1999 constitution. They have also criticized the defense minister, Adm. Diego Molero, for pledging support for Maduro’s candidacy despite a ban on the military taking political sides.

Ana Teresa Sifontes, a 71-year-old housewife and opposition sympathizer, said Chavez did some good for the nation’s poor. But she said he had bungled the economy, exhibiting more interest in regional grandstanding than governing.

She said she hoped his death would bring change.

“Why do we have to pay for Cuba?” she asked, referring to the billions in Venezuelan oil Chavez sent to Havana each year in return for Cuban doctors and other experts. “Why do we need them here?”

Venezuelan officials have yet to say what type of cancer he suffered from, but details were emerging of the former paratrooper’s final hours.

The head of Venezuela’s presidential guard, Gen. Jose Ornella, told the AP late Wednesday that Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering.

“He couldn’t speak but he said it with his lips … ‘I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me die,’ because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country,” said Ornella, who said he was with the socialist president at the moment of his death Tuesday.

In Washington, State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. hoped the upcoming vote would be held on a level playing field, and lamented the expulsion of the American officials.

“We are obviously disappointed by these false accusations levied against our embassy officials,” Nuland said. “This is part of a tired playbook of alleging foreign interference as a political football in internal Venezuelan politics.”

Key events in Hugo Chavez’s life:

Feb. 4, 1992 — Army paratrooper Lt. Col. Chavez leads botched coup against President Carlos Andres Perez. Faces possible 30-year prison term.

March 26, 1994 — After two years in jail awaiting trial, Chavez and fellow plotters set free when President Rafael Caldera dismisses charges.

Dec. 6, 1998 — Wins presidential election, promising to seek “third way” between socialism and capitalism.

Feb. 2, 1999 — Hours after being sworn in, decrees referendum on whether to rewrite constitution.

April 25, 1999 — Venezuelans overwhelmingly approve proposal to have assembly draft new constitution.

Dec. 15, 1999 — Venezuelans vote to accept Chavez-backed constitution. It eliminates Senate, changes country’s name to Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, lengthens presidential term from five years to six.

July 30, 2000 — Elected to new six-year term.

April 11, 2002 — Gunfire erupts as protesters demanding Chavez’s resignation march toward presidential palace; 19 people killed. Dissident generals oust Chavez and clear way for interim government that throws out constitution.

April 14, 2002 — After huge protests by Chavez supporters, loyal army officers rescue Chavez, restore him to power.

Dec. 3, 2002 — Business organizations, labor unions and executives from Venezuela’s state-run oil company call strike, demanding Chavez agree to nonbinding referendum on his rule. Strike fizzles. Seven top executives and 18,000 workers later fired for participating in it.

Aug. 15, 2004 — Venezuelans overwhelmingly vote “no” in referendum asking if Chavez should leave office immediately.

Dec. 14, 2004 — Chavez signs cooperation agreement with Fidel Castro that evolves into leftist Bolivarian Alliance, or ALBA, bloc as other Latin American and Caribbean nations join.

Jan. 30, 2005 — Announces at World Social Forum in Brazil that he aims to develop “21st-century socialism.”

Sept. 7, 2005 — Creates Petrocaribe agreement that sells Venezuelan oil on preferential credit terms to more than a dozen countries.

Dec. 4, 2005 — President’s allies win all 167 seats in National Assembly as major opposition parties boycott election.

Sept. 20, 2006 — Chavez calls U.S. President George W. Bush “the devil” in speech before U.N. General Assembly.

Dec. 3, 2006 — Re-elected to six-year term, capturing 63 percent of vote.

Jan. 31, 2007 — Pro-government lawmakers grant Chavez sweeping powers to legislate by decree for 18 months.

Feb. 8, 2007 — Chavez’s government nationalizes Venezuela’s largest private electric company.

Feb. 12, 2007 — Officials sign agreement to take over Venezuela’s largest telecommunications company.

May 28, 2007 — Radio Caracas Television, country’s oldest private network, goes off air after Chavez refuses to renew its broadcasting license.

Dec. 2, 2007 — Voters reject constitutional amendments proposed by Chavez, setting back his drive to transform Venezuela into socialist state.

April 3, 2008 — Chavez orders nationalization of Venezuela’s cement industry.

April 9, 2008 — Government announces it will nationalize Venezuela’s largest steel maker.

Sept. 12, 2008 — Chavez orders U.S. ambassador to leave Venezuela, accusing him of conspiring against government.

Feb. 15, 2009 — Wins referendum that allows him to run for re-election indefinitely and vows to remain in power for at least another decade.

Sept. 27, 2010 — In congressional elections, Chavez’s allies lose two-thirds majority that has allowed them to ignore opponents in rewriting fundamental laws and appointing key officials. His allies still retain majority.

Dec. 17, 2010 — Outgoing congress grants Chavez power to enact laws by decree for 18 months.

June 10, 2011 — Chavez undergoes surgery in Cuba for pelvic abscess.

June 12, 2011 — Telephones state television to say he is recovering from surgery, but his silence following call prompts speculation he is severely ill.

June 30, 2011 — Appears on television to confirm he had a cancerous tumor removed. Later says tumor was size of baseball.

July 4, 2011 — Returns to Venezuela, but travels to Cuba periodically for chemotherapy and medical tests.

Sept. 23, 2011 — Says he’s completed chemotherapy and calls treatment successful.

Feb. 21, 2012 — Announces doctors found lesion in same place where tumor was removed; says he will return to Cuba for surgery.

Feb. 26, 2012 — Undergoes operation that removes tumor from same location in pelvic region. Says later that tests found tumor was “recurrence of the initially diagnosed cancer.”

March 24, 2012 — Travels to Cuba to begin radiation therapy.

July 9, 2012 — Says at a news conference that tests have shown he is “totally free” of cancer.

Oct. 7, 2012 — Wins another six-year term, beating challenger Henrique Capriles by an 11-point margin.

Dec. 9, 2012 — Announces that his cancer has returned and that he needs surgery again. Also says for the first time that if he is unable to stay on as president, Vice President Nicolas Maduro should take his place and be elected president.

Dec. 11, 2012 — Undergoes his fourth cancer-related operation in Cuba. Officials describe it as a complicated six-hour surgery.

March 5, 2012 — Government announces death of Hugo Chavez.

CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, ending 14 years of tumultuous and divisive rule that won him passionate support among the poor but hatred from business leaders and wealthy Venezuelans.

The flamboyant 58-year-old had undergone four operations in Cuba for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in mid-2011. He vanished from public view after December 11 surgery that resulted in complications and respiratory infections.

“It’s a moment of deep pain,” said Vice President Nicolas Maduro, his voice choking during a live TV address.

“His project, his flags will be raised with honor and dignity. Commander, thank you, thank you so much, on behalf of these people whom you protected.”

Venezuela’s military chiefs quickly pledged loyalty to Maduro, who will be caretaker president until elections are called within 30 days.

Chavez supporters poured onto the streets, weeping and chanting “Chavez lives!” and “We are Chavez!”.

“Don’t let anyone try to convince you Chavez has gone … He will always be with us,” said the head of Congress, Diosdado Cabello.

State TV broadcast Chavez’s emotional last speech to the nation in December, shops in Caracas closed their doors for fear of looting, and condolences poured in from around the world, including messages from film maker Oliver Stone and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Chavez easily won a new six-year term at an election in October and his death is devastating for millions of supporters who adored his charismatic style, anti-U.S. rhetoric and oil-financed policies that brought subsidized food and free health clinics to long-neglected slums.

Detractors, however, saw his one-man style, gleeful nationalizations and often harsh treatment of opponents as traits of an egotistical dictator whose misplaced statist economics wasted a historic bonanza of oil revenues.

Chavez’s corpse will lie in state at a Caracas military academy until a formal funeral ceremony on Friday, and seven days of mourning will be observed, officials said.

MADURO FAVORITE TO WIN ELECTION

Chavez’s death opens the way for a new election that will test whether his socialist “revolution” can live on without his dominant personality at the helm.

A new vote will likely pit Maduro against Henrique Capriles, the centrist opposition leader and state governor who lost to Chavez in October. Maduro appealed for calm and respect for democracy.

One recent opinion poll gave Maduro a strong lead because he is Chavez’s preferred successor, enjoys support among many if the working class and could benefit from an inevitable surge of emotion in the coming days.

Maduro has been a close ally of Chavez for years and would be very unlikely to make significant changes to the late president’s socialist policies, although he could at some point try to ease tensions with investors and the U.S. government.

Just hours before Chavez’s death, though, Maduro alleged that “imperialist” conspirators had infected the president with cancer among a plethora of conspiracies with domestic opponents. The government never detailed the type of cancer Chavez had, but experts think it was a soft-tissue sarcoma.

A victory by Capriles would bring in much deeper changes and would be welcomed by business groups and foreign investors, although he would probably move cautiously in order to lower the risk of political instability and violence.

Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and some of the most heavily traded bonds, so investors will be highly sensitive to any signs of turmoil.

U.S. President Barack Obama said his government was interested in starting a new relationship with Venezuela.

“At this challenging time of President Hugo Chavez ‘s passing, the United States reaffirms its support for the Venezuelan people and its interest in developing a constructive relationship with the Venezuelan government,” Obama said in a statement.

An opposition win at the election would move Venezuela closer to the United States and upend alliances with Latin American states that have relied on Chavez’s oil-funded largesse – most notably with communist-led Cuba, which recovered from financial ruin in the 1990s thanks largely to Venezuelan aid.

Chavez was a garrulous figurehead for a global “anti-imperialist” alliance stretching as far as Belarus and Iran, and will be sorely missed by anti-U.S. agitators.

After the cancer was diagnosed in June 2011, Chavez went through several cycles of disappearing from the public eye for weeks at a time for treatment in Havana, only to return just as his adversaries were predicting his demise.

His health weakened severely just after his re-election on October 7, possibly due to his decision to campaign for a third term instead of stepping aside to focus on his recovery.

HUMBLE ROOTS

Chavez was raised by his grandmother in a house with a mud floor in rural Venezuela and evoked almost religious passion among poor supporters who loved his folksy charm, common touch and determination to put the country’s oil wealth at their service.

He burst onto the national scene by leading an attempted coup in 1992. It failed and he was imprisoned, but he then formed a political party on his release two years later and swept to power in a 1998 election.

It was the first of four presidential election victories, built on widespread support among the poor.

But Chavez alienated investors with waves of takeovers and strict currency controls, often bullied his rivals, and disappointed some followers who say he focused too much on ideological issues at the expense of day-to-day problems such power cuts, high inflation and crime.

Chavez built a highly centralized political system around his larger-than-life image and his tireless, micro-managing style created something close to a personality cult. He was particularly adept at exploiting divisions within a fractious opposition.

Chavez was briefly toppled in a coup in 2002, but returned triumphantly after his supporters took to the streets.

Apparently realizing the end was nigh, Chavez named Maduro his successor in December, just before his fourth operation, which followed months of grueling chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

MADURO’S PROSPECTS

On February 18, Chavez made a surprise pre-dawn return from Cuba and was taken to a ninth-floor suite of a military hospital in Caracas, surrounded by tight security.

The government published a handful of pictures of Chavez lying in a hospital bed while he was still in Havana – the only time he was seen since the latest surgery. Supporters held tearful vigils around the country to pray for his recovery.

Maduro, 50, will now focus on marshalling support from Chavez’s diverse coalition, which includes leftist ideologues, businessmen, and radical armed groups called “colectivos”.

Seeking to knock down rumors of tensions at the top of the ruling Socialist Party (PSUV), Maduro has stressed the unity between him and Cabello, a powerful former army buddy of Chavez who heads the National Assembly.

Maduro is a former bus driver who rose from union activist to foreign minister and then to president-in-waiting. He won Chavez’s confidence by meticulously echoing his vitriolic rhetoric and never airing a dissenting opinion.

Maduro has mimicked Chavez’s rabble-rousing style in appearances in recent weeks, peppering speeches with insults aimed at adversaries.

Capriles, Maduro’s likely opponent, is a 40-year-old governor of Miranda state who led a hard-fought campaign against Chavez in the October election.

There are clear ideological differences between the 20 or so groups in the opposition’s Democratic Unity coalition and without their enmity to Chavez to bind them, the alliance could splinter.

Until recently, polls had shown Capriles would beat any of Chavez’s proteges. But the naming of Maduro as Chavez’s heir, and the outpouring of emotion that will accompany Chavez’s death, have changed the picture.

A survey carried out by local pollster Hinterlaces between January 30 and February 9 gave Maduro 50-percent support, compared to 36 percent for Capriles.

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s breathing problems have worsened and he is suffering from a “severe” new respiratory infection as he struggles to recover from cancer surgery, the government said in a somber medical update on Monday.

The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost three months since undergoing the operation in Cuba. It was his fourth surgery since the disease was detected in mid-2011.

“Today there is a worsening of his respiratory function, related to his depressed immune system. There is now a new, severe infection,” Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said, reading the latest brief statement on Chavez’s condition.

Chavez made a surprise pre-dawn homecoming two weeks ago with none of the fanfare and celebration that had accompanied previous returns from treatment in Havana. The government said he is now fighting for his life at a Caracas military hospital. Armed guards are providing heavy security outside.

“The president has been receiving high-impact chemotherapy, along with other complementary treatments … his general condition continues to be very delicate,” Villegas said.

Chavez suffered multiple complications after the December 11 surgery, including unexpected bleeding and an earlier severe respiratory infection that officials said had been controlled.

The government said he had trouble speaking because he was breathing through a tracheal tube, but that he was giving orders to ministers by writing them down.

“The commander-president remains clinging to Christ and to life, conscious of the difficulties that he is facing, and complying strictly with the program designed by his medical team,” Villegas said.

Chavez had undergone several grueling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which at times left him bald and bloated. He twice wrongly declared himself cured.

The only sight of the former soldier since his latest operation were four photos published by the government while he was still in Havana, showing him lying in a hospital bed.

Following an emotional Mass at the military hospital on Friday, Vice President Nicolas Maduro – Chavez’s preferred successor if he is unable to carry on as president – said the president had decided for himself several days earlier that he would return to Venezuela from Cuba.

Chavez was going to begin a “tougher and more intense” phase of his treatment, Maduro said, and he wanted to be in Caracas.

CHAVEZ’S HOMECOMING

Maduro said that included chemotherapy – prompting some in the opposition to question whether chemotherapy can be successfully given to patients in such a delicate state.

The government is furious at rumors in recent days that Chavez might have died, blaming them on an opposition plot by “far-right fascists” to destabilize the OPEC nation, which boasts the world’s biggest oil reserves.

“We call on all our people to stay alert, untouched by the psychological war deployed by foreign laboratories with the corrupt Venezuelan right, seeking to generate violence as a pretext for a foreign intervention,” Villegas said.

“At this time, unity and discipline are the bases to guarantee political stability,” he said, adding that the government was accompanying Chavez’s children and other relatives in “this battle full of love and spirituality.”

Opposition leaders have accused Maduro of repeatedly lying about the president’s real condition. Several dozen anti-government student protesters have chained themselves up in public to demand proof that Chavez is alive and in Venezuela.

CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela´s government has revealed for the first time that President Hugo Chavez has been receiving chemotherapy as he “continues his battle for life” since undergoing a fourth cancer surgery in Cuba.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro told reporters after a Mass for Chavez late Friday that doctors began the treatment after the socialist leader recovered in mid-January from a respiratory infection that followed his Dec. 11 operation in Havana.

The government has said Chavez was flown back to Caracas on Feb. 18 and is at the capital´s military hospital since.

Chavez has not been seen nor heard from since going to Cuba, except for a set of “proof of life” photos released Feb. 15.

He first revealed an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011. He reported undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy after earlier operations.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP´s earlier story is below.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles accused Venezuela´s government Friday of repeatedly lying about President Hugo Chavez´s condition, and said the truth will be known within days.

Capriles tweeted the claim as Vice President Nicolas Maduro assured Venezuelans on national TV that their cancer-stricken president continues a difficult and slow recovery from Dec. 11 surgery.

“We´ll see how they explain to the country in the (coming) days all the lies they´ve been telling about the president´s situation,” said Capriles, whom Chavez defeated in Oct. 7 elections.

Chavez has not been seen nor heard from since, other than in some proof-of-life photos released on Feb. 15.

The government says the socialist who has been Venezuela´s leader for more than 14 years returned from Cuba three days later and is at Caracas´ military hospital.

But it has also sent mixed signals. On Thursday, Maduro said, not for the first time, that Chavez was battling for his life.

Maduro accused opponents of spreading rumors about Chavez´ health to destabilize the nation.

The opposition says Chavez should either be sworn in or declare himself incapable and call new elections. The constitution says he should have been sworn in on Jan. 10, but Venezuela´s Supreme Court said it was OK to wait.

Maduro attacked the Spanish newspaper ABC and Colombia´s Caracol network for allegedly spreading lies about Chavez´s condition. ABC said without specifying its source that Chavez´s cancer had spread to a lung. It said he had been moved to an island compound in the Caribbean.

Chavez´s son-in-law, Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, said on state TV that Chavez continues “to fight hard and is in the military hospital, as peaceful as he could be, with his doctors, with his family.”

Arreaza is one of a small circle with access to Chavez, who the government says is battling a “respiratory deficiency” following a post-operative respiratory infection that required a tracheal tube.

Maduro blamed “the bourgeoisie,” as the Chavez government refers to its opponents, of trying to destabilize the country and demanded they “cease the rumors.”

CARACAS, Venezuela: The world got its first glimpse of Hugo Chavez since he underwent a fourth cancer-related surgery in Cuba more than two months ago, with photos released Friday showing the Venezuelan leader smiling alongside his daughters in Havana.

Along with images of the puffy-faced Chavez came a government explanation for why no one has heard from the longtime president since his surgery: He’s breathing through a tracheal tube that makes speech difficult.

Chavez’s government described his condition as “delicate” and said he continues to undergo “vigorous treatment for his fundamental illness.”

The images and new details filled a vacuum of information about Chavez’s condition that has unleashed rampant speculation in Venezuela. Government officials say Chavez has been recovering in Cuba since his cancer surgery Dec. 11.

The four photos show Chavez reclining on what appears to be a bed, his cheeks reddish, and a blue pillow behind his head. He smiles broadly, while his daughters Rosa and Maria lean in close to him.

Three of the images show Chavez looking at Thursday’s issue of the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma, his daughters flanking him. Chavez’s son-in-law, Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza, showed the photos on Venezuelan state television.

Chavez’s hasn’t been seen publicly or heard from since he left for Cuba on Dec. 10. During previous treatments in Havana, he spoke on TV or appeared in photos.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Friday that the tracheal tube makes talking difficult for Chavez.

“After two months of a complicated post-operative process, the patient remains conscious, with his intellectual functions intact, in close communication with his government team,” Villegas said, reading from a statement on television.

Villegas reiterated that Chavez has overcome a respiratory infection that arose after the surgery, “although a certain degree of (breathing) insufficiency persists.”

“Given that circumstance, which is being duly treated, Comandante Chavez is currently breathing through a tracheal cannula, which temporarily hinders speech,” Villegas said.

Villegas also said Chavez’s doctors are “applying vigorous treatment for his fundamental illness,” an apparent reference to cancer. He said that treatment “isn’t free of complications.”

Government opponents have been demanding more information about Chavez’s condition, and have asked why he hasn’t spoken to the nation to explain his condition.

Dr. Jose Silva, a pulmonary specialist and president of the Venezuela Pulmonology Society, told The Associated Press that based on the government’s accounts, doctors must have performed a tracheotomy on Chavez, cutting an opening in his windpipe to facilitate breathing. He said he thinks Chavez is breathing with the help of a ventilator through a tube attached to his windpipe, and speculated the president’s track suit was zipped up to the neck to hide the tube.

Patients with breathing problems often require a tracheotomy to avoid damage to the vocal chords when a ventilator is used for an extended period, Silva said. “As long as he’s depending on the respirator, he can’t talk.”

Based on the government’s account and the way Chavez looked in the photos, with his head propped up on the pillow, Silva said it’s possible the president has developed severe myopathy or polyneuropathy — disorders of the muscles or nerves “that are seen in critically ill patients and that that can lead … to it taking longer than usual to be freed from ventilating support.”

Chavez has acknowledged taking steroids during earlier phases of his treatment, and their use can lead both to bloating and to other problems. Silva said steroids can be a factor in patients who develop severe disorders of the nerves or muscles.

Such ailments would explain why Chavez still needs the support of a ventilator more than two months after the surgery, Silva said. In these types of cases, he said, “the recovery takes weeks or months, and the person is incapacitated during that time.”

Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the Colombian League Against Cancer in Bogota, Colombia, said it’s normal for a patient’s face to swell after being on a ventilator for a long time, though he also speculated the puffiness could be due to medications Chavez has been taking.

“They’re not telling us anything about his ‘fundamental illness,'” Castro said. “They don’t touch that subject. So, the question is: What’s happened with the cancer?”

In a downtown Caracas plaza, some cheered and clapped Friday as they watched the government broadcast replayed on a television under a tent where the president’s supporters regularly gather.

“I have prayed like you wouldn’t believe for the health of our commander president,” gushed Luisa Rodriguez, saying the pictures filled her with joy.

People bought photos of Chavez that were being sold in the square for the equivalent of $3 apiece.

Before leaving for Cuba, Chavez acknowledged there were risks and said that if his illness prevented him from staying on as president, Vice President Nicolas Maduro should run in a new election to take his place.

Maduro has traveled repeatedly to Havana in recent weeks and has shown documents he said were signed by Chavez while insisting the president remains in charge. On Wednesday, Maduro said Chavez is undergoing “extremely complex and tough” treatments, which he didn’t specify.

Arreaza on Friday described them as “palliative treatments” but didn’t give details. He said Chavez has been keeping up his spirits with “llanera” folk music playing in his room.

“He’s a fighter,” Arreaza said in a televised interview.

The 58-year-old president has been undergoing cancer treatment in Cuba on-and-off since June 2011. He has said he has had tumors removed from his pelvic region and has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Throughout the treatments, Chavez has not revealed the type of cancer or the location where tumors have been removed.

The government provided the update a day after students began protesting outside the Cuban Embassy demanding the president appear and accusing the island’s leaders of wielding undue influence in Venezuela’s affairs.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said he hopes the president recovers, but also accused the government of misleading people about the illness.

“There are some government leaders who weren’t elected and who appear every day on television with a different story,” Capriles told reporters. In a message on Twitter, he said that “several days ago the liars said they spoke with him. … Now, they say he can’t speak. They’re deceiving their own people!”