Oddities were Chavez's undoing

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Hugo Chavez swept to power by promising a new era of equality in Venezuela, yet he fast became the most eccentric leader the country has known in modern times.

Chavez's three-year presidency came to an end Friday when the military forced him to resign after an antigovernment demonstration that descended into violence.

It was a stunning end for a leader who once enjoyed unprecedented popularity for pledging to end social inequality in Venezuela. But his anti-American rhetoric, military image and cozy relationships with international pariahs like Saddam Hussein often seemed a throwback to Latin America's darker days.

Chavez, 47, arrived on the world scene on Feb. 4, 1992, when -- as an army paratrooper -- he led a military coup attempt that succeeded everywhere in the country except in Caracas, the capital. He was arrested but made a famous televised speech in which he told Venezuelans his struggle had been derailed -- "for now."

Chavez was sent to Yare prison miles outside the capital. Former prisoners and visitors have described how while there Chavez sometimes spoke to them as if he were Simon Bolivar, the 19th century independence hero revered by Chavez.

Chavez also conversed with a bust of Bolivar in the prison yard.

In 1994, then-President Andres Perez was impeached by Congress on corruption charges and replaced by President Rafael Caldera, who freed Chavez and fellow coup leaders.

Chavez moved to the house of a Caracas architect, Nedo Paniz, who sympathized with his anticorruption fight. Paniz recalls Chavez saying he was the reincarnation of another 19th century revolutionary hero, Gen. Ezequiel Zamora.

"He thinks he possesses the spirit of these heroes," Paniz told the St. Petersburg Times in December.

In 1998 Chavez launched a presidential campaign with the support of minority leftist political parties. He won presidential elections that year with 56 percent of the vote.

Chavez charmed many Venezuelans with his gregariousness and refreshingly frank talk. But he also insisted on wearing his army uniform and the red beret of the paratrooper -- projecting an image that reminded many of Latin America's former military dictators.

Paniz said even that was a distortion.

"The truth is he was a tank man," Paniz said. "He only ever made five jumps." Former military colleagues say Chavez was so scared he almost had to be pushed out of the plane.

He quickly consolidated his power, extending his own four-year term to 2006 and revamping the Constitution, Congress and the courts in a series of election and referendum victories.

Chavez, who is married to Marisabel Rodriguez and has five children, loved attention.

A baseball fan, he once pitched batting practice to Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa. He gave speeches that lasted as long as four hours and often sang during his weekly radio and TV address to the nation.

"Chavez is a messianic, megalomaniac, who believes it is his mission to lead the Andean people to freedom from neoliberal slavery and against the Americans," said Erik Ekvall, a political analyst in Caracas.

While many of the country's poor supported him, wealthier Venezuelans did not. Born into a poor family in a farm town near the Colombian border, Chavez referred to rich Venezuelans as the "squalid ones."

He blasted the Catholic Church, calling it a "tumor," and lambasted the country's newspapers and TV stations for being biased against his government.

Chavez assigned the military duties that usually belonged to civilians, including social works, building roads and bridges and distributing food.

He alienated Washington with visits to Libya and Iraq, his close friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro, and his "neutral" stand in Colombia's civil war. And he angered the Bush administration by criticizing U.S. bombing in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Dissent began to grow within the military. Commanders who had fought Cuban-backed guerrillas in the 1960s and '70s resented his friendship with Castro. They were angered by his ties with leftist Colombian guerrillas.

Chavez's effort to tighten control over the state oil monopoly triggered his fall. When he tried to appoint his loyalists to run the company, Petroleos de Venezuela, managers revolted.

Other labor groups, frustrated by $21-billion in back wages and pensions owed to workers, joined oil workers in demonstrations that ended in violence Thursday.

After being ousted Friday, Chavez asked Venezuela's high command to allow him to go into exile in Cuba. The request was denied.

"He has to be held accountable to his country," said army Gen. Ramon Fuemayor.

-- Information from the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Times files was used in this report.

Life of Chavez

Highlights in career of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:

July 28, 1954: Born in southwestern farm town of Sabaneta, the son of schoolteachers.

July 5, 1975: Graduates from Venezuelan Military Academy as second lieutenant, with a degree in engineering.

Dec. 17, 1982: With four fellow officers, founds the secret Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement, dedicated to overhauling Venezuelan political system.

Feb. 4, 1992: Leads failed coup against President Carlos Andres Perez; imprisoned.

1994: Released.

1997: Relaunches his political party as the Movement of the Fifth Republic.

Dec. 6, 1998: Elected president on antipoverty, anticorruption platform; promises to redistribute oil wealth. Over next two years, oversees adoption of new Constitution, revamps Congress, courts.

July 2000: Re-elected to six-year term.

November 2001: Decrees 49 economic laws, ranging from oil to agriculture, to stimulate economy.

Dec. 10, 2001: Venezuelan Workers Confederation and Fedecamaras business chamber stage general strike to protest decrees, especially a new land law allowing the government to expropriate estates and agricultural land deemed unproductive. Popularity rating falls to 30 percent, from high of 80 percent.

Feb. 14, 2002: Venezuelan bolivar plummets 25 percent against the U.S. dollar after the government scraps 5-year-old exchange rate controls.

Feb. 25, 2002: Appoints new board of directors to state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela. Executives say directors are unqualified and intended to strengthen Chavez's control over the multinational.

April 4, 2002: Executives at Petroleos de Venezuela begin work slowdown to demand Chavez rescind his appointees to board of directors.

April 9, 2002: Workers confederation and Fedecamaras declare 24-hour general strike to support Petroleos de Venezuela dissidents. Chavez vows to crush strike.

April 10, 2002: Strike extended another 24 hours, then indefinitely.

April 11, 2002: More than 150,000 people rally in support of strike and oil protest; at least 13 killed and 110 injured. Military demands Chavez resign.

April 12, 2002: Chavez resigns; detained by the military to await charges stemming from violence.

-- Sources: AP, BBC

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