Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has died, his vice-president has announced.

Mr Chavez had not appeared in public since he returned to Venezuela last month after cancer treatment in Cuba.

An emotional Nicolas Maduro made the announcement on Tuesday evening, flanked by leading Venezuelan political and military leaders.

Earlier, he said the 58-year-old Venezuelan leader had a new, severe respiratory infection and had entered "his most difficult hours".

One of the most visible, vocal and controversial leaders in Latin America, the former army paratrooper won the presidency in 1998 and had most recently won another six-year presidential term in October 2012.

Last May, he said he had recovered from an unspecified cancer, after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy in 2011 and a further operation in February 2012.

However, in December 2012, he announced he needed further cancer surgery in Cuba, and named his Vice-President, Nicolas Maduro, as his preferred successor should the need arise.

Mr Chavez remained out of public view, finally returning to Venezuela in February.

 Ouze wrote:
O snap. I had not heard this.

My mother will be very sad about this. She really liked him initially, though towards the end there he had inched so close to dictatorship that even she had started to lose faith.

 Ouze wrote:
That's Che Guevara.

 Gentleman_Jellyfish wrote:
... Why is the picture in the OP a cat?

In the South Florida enclaves crowded with Venezuelans who fled President Hugo Chávez’s regime, Chávez’s death Tuesday afternoon prompted spontaneous gatherings in familiar places. Local politicians weighed in offering predictions. And television and radio stations ramped up their news coverage, in what could be a preview of how Miami reacts to the eventual death of Fidel Castro.

Several news crews broadcast live in the early evening from Doral, home to scores of Venezuelans and a Venezuelan-born mayor. A celebratory mood spread at El Arepazo 2, a popular Venezuelan family restaurant, where more than 300 people gathered.

They waved Venezuelan flags and cheered “ Venezuela presente” — Venezuela is present. Some men sat outside playing dominoes. Others danced joropo, a traditional Venezuelan dance. No one seemed to mind to wait an hour for an arepa.

It was a far different gathering than the one five months ago, when somber crowds filled with supporters of opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski watched presidential election returns showing a victorious Chávez.

“We are not celebrating someone’s death,” Mary LaBarca, whose grandmother was dancing outside the restaurant, said in Spanish. “We are celebrating freedom.”

Doral Mayor Luigi Boria, Florida’s first Venezuelan-born mayor, called for unity in his native country.

A robust crowd spilled into the street at a sister restaurant of the same name, El Arepazo 2, in Weston, another city with a high concentration of Venezuelans.

The eatery, inside a strip plaza off Weston Road, began filling up with customers, some of them women with baby strollers, others men drinking Polar beer — a Venezuelan brand. A TV news crew conducted interviews. Later, the crowd spilled out into the street.

News of Chávez’s death was welcomed with cheers and hope for a more Democratic future. Customers gathered around a flat screen TV tuned to Telemundo’s live broadcast of the news from Venezuela. Others waited in line for arepas, their gazes fixed on the TV.

Daniela Calzadilla and her sister, Corina, toasted Chávez’s death with Polar beer in styrofoam cups. The women hoisted a small Venezuelan flag.

“We hope this is the path to return our democracy and that hopefully we can have the same country we once had,” said Daniela, who moved from Caracas five years ago. She left because crime in the Venezuelan capital skyrocketed under Chávez’s leadership, she said, and career opportunities dwindled.

Corina Calzadilla, who moved to Weston a decade ago, said she felt bad for Chávez’s children. “The death of a parent is painful,” she said.

The sisters said they plan to return to Venezuela to vote in new presidential elections.

At Doggi’s, a Venezuelan fast-food restaurant in The Roads neighborhood of Miami, Nayana Nava took back-to-back calls on her cell phone. “Everyone is calling me, as if it were my birthday,” she said. “Thank God. Finally. We’re free.”

Nava, 39, is the Miami Beach coordinator for the Venezuelan opposition group Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, which in October mobilized bus loads of Venezuelan expats to New Orleans to vote in their country’s election after the Miami consulate was shut down.

Nava, who has lived in the United States for 17 years, said the group will be organizing another get-out-the-vote campaign in a matter of days for the election to replace Chávez.

In Key Biscayne, Antonio Braschi, owner of the Costa Med restaurant, said he began receiving calls from clients congratulating him on the news of Chávez’s death.

Braschi, who moved from Venezuela six years ago, said he was relieved when he heard the news but has mixed emotions about celebrating any death.

“Dictator or not, he was a person,” Braschi said.

The El Arepazo restaurants, sprinkled across South Florida, hosted the gatherings much like Versailles and La Carreta do for Cubans. News crews flocked to Versailles on Tuesday evening, apparently expecting a crowd. They found only a handful of customers, including one man who played to the cameras by popping open a bottle of champagne and shouting, “ Viva Cuba libre!” — long live a free Cuba.

At an El Arepazo restaurant in Brickell, about 20 Venezuelans gathered, including co-workers from NBC Universal who printed out the Venezuelan flag when they heard of Chávez’s death.

“It’s going to be a big transition,” said Sofia Bustillos, a 30-year-old paralegal who left Venezuela in 2003 due to economic instability and insecurity. “Like all changes, it’s going to be painful and a learning experience for everybody. I believe the majority of the community here is relieved.”

Back in Weston, Betsy Grimaldo-Toro, a 47-year-old from Davie, played cuatro — a small, four-stringed guitar — and her husband, 53-year-old Raúl Toro, shook maracas. At one point, they sang El Burrito Sabanero (The Donkey from the Plains), a Christmas carol.

Though he sang a happy tune, Toro said he did not have much hope that his home country will change.

“I don’t wish bad things for Venezuela,” he said. “But it will be very difficult for chavismo to leave.”

But Patricia Pesti, who said she moved to Weston from Venezuela a year ago, disagreed with Toro. “We feel like it’s a new beginning,” she said. “We see a light for a better future far ahead, not tomorrow.”

At a nearby table, Oscar Pérez, 31, said he was celebrating “the birth of a new country.”

“There’s so much happiness,” said Pérez, who moved to Weston from Caracas the year Chávez took power. “We’ve been waiting 14 years. I’ve seen how he ruined the country. It’s anarchy.”

Pérez’s brother, Armando, 29, said his joy was tempered with concern about reaction among pro-Chávez supporters, known as chavistas, back home.

“This is the first step to big change,” he said. “I hope nothing bad happens, and that ignorant people don’t resort to violence.”

Pérez said he looks forward to new elections in Venezuela.

And though Chávez built a political base in Venezuela, Armando Pérez said he doesn’t believe the movement Chávez created will survive without its populist and charismatic leader.

“ Chavismo without Chavez doesn’t exist,” he said.

Though the Pérez brothers have lived nearly half their lives in South Florida, they have friends and relatives back in Venezuela.

Carlos Marino, 63, watched the TV with the Perezes. All three are car salesman for the nearby Rick Case dealership.

They broke into occasional song, including popular tunes Viva Venezuela and Yo Me Quedo en Venezuela (I’m staying in Venezuela).

Some customers were just hearing the news.

“ Es verdad,” Marino said happily. It’s true.

“I never wish anyone death,” he continued, “but in this case I did. He poisoned the Caribbean.”

Marino lives in Miami Lakes. He moved to south Florida 15 year ago, he said, because he did not like Chávez.

“I have a new life here,” he said, “but I always wish happiness and liberty for my people.”

Marino said the first person he called when hearing the news was his uncle in Margarita, an island off the northern coast of Venezuela. His uncle was screaming with joy, Marino said.

 sebster wrote:
For some reason Hugo Chavez just has to be a hero or a dire villain. People can't just, you know, see a guy who addressed a number of considerable problems in his country, but did so through political actions that were often very dubious and a threat to the democracy in his own country. Just accept that politics, especially in a country as troubled as Venezuala, produces very complex political figures.

I mean, Hungary is steadily collapsing from a democracy into a one party state, and I've heard not one fething thing about it here from any of the right wingers.

 sebster wrote:
For some reason Hugo Chavez just has to be a hero or a dire villain. People can't just, you know, see a guy who addressed a number of considerable problems in his country, but did so through political actions that were often very dubious and a threat to the democracy in his own country. Just accept that politics, especially in a country as troubled as Venezuala, produces very complex political figures.

I mean, Hungary is steadily collapsing from a democracy into a one party state, and I've heard not one fething thing about it here from any of the right wingers. But Chavez, oh his abuse of the democratic systems , that bothers you all so very much that you celebrate the man's death.

And at the same time I remember pretty clearly how hypersensitive the left wing was to anything Bush did in office, everything he did other than swinging a golf club was a step towards the collapse of American democracy. But Chavez actually dismantles democratic institutions and he remains a hero.

 whembly wrote:
So... do you want to address how/why he amassed at least 2 billion dollars of personal wealth?

 sebster wrote:

 whembly wrote:
So... do you want to address how/why he amassed at least 2 billion dollars of personal wealth?

Corruption obviously.

Now are you going to tell me you are exactly as bothered by the corruption of the other leaders of various almost-but-not-quite-democracies and sort-of-but-not-really-democracies, and have spent as much time reading about them as you have about Chavez.

If not, why do you think that might be? And what do you think the effect of that might be on your understanding of the world?

 sebster wrote:

 whembly wrote:
So... do you want to address how/why he amassed at least 2 billion dollars of personal wealth?

Corruption obviously.

Now are you going to tell me you are exactly as bothered by the corruption of the other leaders of various almost-but-not-quite-democracies and sort-of-but-not-really-democracies, and have spent as much time reading about them as you have about Chavez.

If not, why do you think that might be? And what do you think the effect of that might be on your understanding of the world?

 whembly wrote:
Yep. He also jailed many politicians/judges throughout the years...

Of course... have you not been paying attention to me? They're all crooks!

 djones520 wrote:
Plus, there isn't a signficant portion of looney's in the US screaming about how Hungaries consolidating power base is really just an expression of true freedom, like they did with Chavez.

 djones520 wrote:
Was he not a monster? Are you arguing that he isn't? Or are you just objecting to my use of the term "looney's" to describe people who saw him as a paragon of democracy?