President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez dead

"We have received the most horrible and tragic news - President Hugo Chavez died...", - Maduro has said on the state TV. 

Chavez was 58. He was born on July 28, 1954 in a teacher's family with many children. He graduated the Military Academy, served in the air forces. In 1992, Chavez made an attempt of a military coup but failed and had to turn himself to the authorities. After the amnesty, he was engaged exclusively in political activity. In December 1998, Hugo Chavez won the presidential election. He conducted nationalization of enterprises and sharply criticized the U.S. policy.

In 2000, Chavez was re-elected as President. In 2002, he managed to keep the power after a coup attempt. Then there were victories at presidential elections in 2006 and 2012. However, last year the Venezuelan leader had to agree to several surgeries and a course of chemotherapy - he had cancer. He couldn’t overcome the disease. 

Chavez was married twice. He had 4 children in his first marriage and a daughter with his second wife. Chavez divorced from her in 2003. Venezuela has had no first lady since then. In 2012, Hugo Chavez was re-elected again, but his inauguration didn't happen - it was postponed due to his poor health condition.

Hugo Chavez and Alyaksandr Lukashenka considered each other allies and friends. The Venezuelan leader visited Belarus several times, Lukashenka also visited Venezuela. Our country gets oil in Venezuela, but recently it has decided to give up oil shipments to Europe and sells it to the United States. Also, Belarusian builders construct residential areas in Caracas. Hugo Chavez gave credits to Belarus: our country received $ 500 thousand from Venezuela in 2011. This was the last time Hugo Chavez visited Belarus.