When he died last Tuesday of cancer at age 58, Venezuelan President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez left a bitterly divided nation with an uncertain future. During his 14-year rule, the feisty, colorful friend to Cuba was a perpetual thorn in the side of the United States, mocking its leadership and courting its enemies even as Venezuela became America\u2019s fourth-largest oil supplier. Surviving several close elections and an attempted coup, Ch\u00e1vez used his nation\u2019s wealth to lavish money on social programs for the poor. On Friday, throngs of his constituents gathered to weep in the streets and world leaders arrived for his state funeral, after which Vice President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro was sworn in as acting president.<\/p>\n
The nation\u2019s future now hinges in large part on the interpretation of a constitutional mandate for a democratic election of Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s successor, and whether Maduro will be permitted to run.<\/p>\n