Chavez was the Cuban people’s best friend, Castro says

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro says Cuba has lost its “best friend” with the death of Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, earlier this month.

In an article published on the front page of Communist Party newspaper Granma on Monday, the 86-year-old Castro said that while it had been clear that Chavez’s life was threatened by a recurring cancer that required four surgeries, word of his death nonetheless came as a bitter shock, The Associated Press reported.

“The best friend the Cuban people have had in the course of their history passed away… Although we knew of his critical state of health, the news was a strong blow,” Castro wrote.

In life, Chavez looked up to Castro as a father figure, mentor, and close friend. Relations between Caracas and Havana expanded greatly after Chavez was elected to his first term as the president of Venezuela in the 1998 election.

On March 8, former Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro took the oath of office as interim president after the Latin American country honored the late President Hugo Chavez.

Before Maduro’s inauguration, over 30 world leaders, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, paid their respects to Chavez at a high-profile funeral. Chavez died on March 5 at 58 after a two-year battle with cancer.

Chavez was born in a poor family on July 28, 1954 in Sabaneta, Barinas state, Venezuela.

He graduated from the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in 1975.

Chavez became involved in revolutionary movements within the armed forces in 1977.

In 1992, he led a failed attempt to overthrow the government of President Carlos Andres Perez and was jailed for two years. Despite the fact that the coup failed, the incident launched his political career.

Chavez toured the country, electrified Venezuelans with his speeches, and won his first presidential election in 1998. He also won presidential elections in 2000, 2006, and 2012.

In 2002, a group of opposition politicians and troops backed by the United States staged a coup against Chavez. He was arrested and sent to a military base on a Caribbean island.

However, just two days later, the efforts of loyal military officers and massive demonstrations by Venezuelans swept him back to power.

Chavez started the Bolivarian Revolution to establish popular democracy and economic independence and to equitably distribute wealth in Latin America.

He was one of the key players in the progressive movement that has swept across Latin America over the past few years.