Hugo Chavez

In 1997, he married Marisabel Rodriguez. Together, they had a daughter. The couple separated in 2000, legally divorcing only in 2004.

In June 2011, he was diagnosed with cancer. He underwent three surgeries to remove the tumor with cancerous cells, finally succumbing to death due to heart attack on March 5, 2013.

Hugo Chavez was born in a working class family to Hugo de los Reyes Chavez and Elena Frias de Chavez. Both his parents were employed as school teachers. He had six siblings.

Since the family faced immense financial difficulty, young Chavez was raised by his grandmother. Completing his basic education from Julian Pino Elementary School, he moved to Barinas to attend Daniel O'Leary High School.

In 1971, he enrolled at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas. Four years later, he moved out of the academy as a top graduate.

His first job at the army was as a communications officer at the counterinsurgency unit in Barinas. He devoted his spare time to reading works of famous theoreticians, which further solidified his thinking that Venezuela required a leftist government.

The corruption in the army and the civilian government made him much critical thus resulting in the founding of a revolutionary movement within the army, namely, Venezuelan People's Liberation Army (ELPV) in 1977.

In 1982, he formed yet another secretive cell within the military by the name of Bolivarian Revolutionary Army 200, which was later called Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200 (MBR-200). The ideals of the organization were based on the beliefs and teachings of Ezequiel Zamora, Simon Bolivar and Simon Rodriguez.

He moved up to the position of a captain in the army and began teaching students his Bolivarian ideals. However, suspicious of his rebellious teachings, he was deported to the remote barracks at Elorza in Apure State.

He was enlisted in the TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in 2005 and 2006.

He was bestowed with the Blue Planet Award in 2008.

Over his lifetime, he received honorary doctorate degree from various universities across the globe, few of which are Kyung Hee University, Beijing University, University of Damascus, University of Tripoli, University of Brasilia, and so on.

Several streets, squares, airport and institutions have been named after him.