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    The life and times of Hugo Chavez

    •March 6, 2013
    • Born the second of six sons of teachers in the cattle-ranching plains of Barinas state and raised by his grandmother Rosa Ines in a mud-floor shack.
    • Young Chavez first aspired to be a painter or pitcher in the U.S. Major Leagues.
    • Though mixing with left-wing rebels and plotting within the military from long before, Chavez burst onto the national stage when he led a 1992 coup attempt against then leader Carlos Andres Perez.
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    The life and times of Hugo Chavez

    Born the second of six sons of teachers in the cattle-ranching plains of Barinas state and raised by his grandmother Rosa Ines in a mud-floor shack.

    His death ended 14 years of charismatic, volatile rule that turned him

    into a major world figure. Ever the showman, Chavez would jump from

    theology to jokes, and from Marxist rhetoric to baseball metaphors in

    building an almost cult-like devotion among followers. Here’s an

    obituary to the socialist showman who transformed Venezuela.