A polarising figure,socialist showman

He was a dreamer with a common touch and enormous ambition. He maintained an almost visceral connection with the poor,tapping into their resentments,while strutting like the strongman in a caudillo novel. His followers called him Comandante.

But he was not a stock figure. Born on July 28,1954,the second of six sons of primary school teachers,he grew up a have-not in an oil-rich country that prized ostentatious consumption. He was a man of mixed ancestry African,indigenous and Spanish who despised a power structure dominated by Europeanized elites. As a soldier he hated hunting down guerrillas,but had no qualms about using weapons to seize power,as he and a group of military co-conspirators tried but failed to do in 1992. Even so,he rose to power in democratic elections,in 1998.

In office,he upended the political order at home and used oil revenues to finance client states in Latin America,notably Bolivia and Nicaragua. Chávez sought to unite the region and erode Washingtons influence.

The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species, he said in a 2006 speech at the United Nations. In the same speech he called President George W Bush the devil.

For years,he succeeded in curbing American influence. He breathed life into Cuba,the hemispheres only Communist nation,with economic assistance; its revolutionary leader,Fidel Castro,was not only an ally but also an inspiration. He forged a Bolivarian alliance with some of Latin Americas energy-exporting nations,like Ecuador and Bolivia,and applauded when they expelled American ambassadors,as he had done. He asserted greater state control over Venezuelas economy by nationalizing dozens of foreign-owned assets,including oil projects controlled by Exxon Mobil and other large American corporations.

Though he met opposition at home,he enjoyed broad support,in part by going into the slums to establish health clinics staffed by Cuban doctors and state-run stores selling subsidized food. These and other social welfare programs could be corrupt and inefficient,but they made the poor feel included in a society that had long ignored them.

At the same time,he was determined to hold onto and enhance his power. He grew obsessed with changing Venezuelas laws and regulations to ensure that he could be re-elected indefinitely and become,indeed,a caudillo,able to rule by decree at times. He stacked his government with generals,colonels and majors,drawing inspiration from the leftist military officers who ruled Peru and Panama in the 1970s.

A bizarre governing apparatus subject to his whims coalesced around him. State television cameras recorded nearly every public appearance,many of them to make surprise,unscripted announcements,often in his military uniform and paratroopers red beret. He might rail against Venezuelas high consumption of Scotch whisky he did not drink alcohol,his aides said or its high demand for breast augmentation surgery. He once stunned citizens by decreeing a new time zone for the nation,a half-hour behind its previous one.

Chávez would delight in angering his critics in rich countries. He heaped praise,for instance,on Ilich Ramírez Sánchez,the Venezuelan terrorist better known as Carlos the Jackal,with whom he corresponded.

After a coup détat that removed him from office for 48 hours in April 2002,which received tacit support from the Bush administration,Chávezs swift return to power signaled a shift in his presidency. Instead of reconciliation,his response was retaliation.

He purged opponents from the national oil company,expropriated the land of others and imprisoned retired military officials who had dared to stand against him. The countrys political debate became increasingly poisonous,and it took its toll on the country.

Private investors,unhinged over Chávezs nationalizations and expropriation threats,halted projects. Hundreds of thousands of scientists,doctors,entrepreneurs and others in the middle class left Venezuela,even as large numbers of immigrants from Haiti,China and Lebanon put down stakes here.

The homicide rate soared under his rule,turning Caracas into one of the worlds most dangerous cities. Armed gangs lorded over prisons,challenging the states authority. Other branches of government often bent to his will. He fired about 19,000 employees of Petróleos de Venezuela,the national oil company,in response to a strike in 2002 and 2003. In 2004,he stripped the Supreme Court of its autonomy. In legislative elections in 2010,his supporters preserved a majority in the National Assembly by gerrymandering.

All the while,Chávez rewrote the rule book on using the media to enhance his power. With Aló Presidente (Hello,President),his Sunday television program,he would speak to viewers in his booming voice for hours on end. His government ordered privately controlled television stations to broadcast his speeches. While initially skeptical of social media,he came to embrace Twitter,attracting millions of followers.

Before he surrendered after the failed 1992 coup attempt,Chavez shrewdly struck a deal that lay the groundwork for his rise later in the decade: he persuaded officials to allow him to appear briefly on national television. Comrades,unfortunately for now the objectives we set for ourselves have not been possible to achieve, he said,adding that new possibilities will arise again.

Two words,por ahora,meaning for now,would remain with Venezuelans.