A resident reacts as he waits in the Proceres Avenue to enter the Military Academy of Venezuela to say his last goodbye to President Hugo Chavez, in the city of Caracas, capital of Venezuela, on March 9, 2013. [Xinhua Photo]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias lost his two-year fight with cancer and died on March 5, 2013. Latin America lost a great leader and China lost a good friend.

The passing of the Venezuelan president is mourned not only by his own people but by people throughout Latin America and beyond. Pursuing his Bolivarian revolution, he had profoundly transformed Venezuelan society: reduced poverty, enhanced social justice and fairness and citizen participation in public affairs. More importantly, he helped steer much of Latin America away from U.S.-backed neoliberalism, also known as Washington Consensus. He left an indelible mark in the mind of the world's people.

Hugo Chavez was born in 1954, just a few days after the U.S. engineered coup in Guatemala that toppled the democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz. That coup eventually culminated in the subordination of Latin America to the United States.

Like his Hero Simon Bolivar, who fought for the independence of Venezuela and other Latin countries from Spanish rule, Hugo Chavez devoted his entire life to freeing Venezuela and Latin America as a whole from U.S. domination.

He became leader of the Fifth Republic Movement founded in 1997 until 2007 when it merged with other parties to become the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which he led until his death. His Bolivarian revolution included a new constitution, participatory democratic councils, nationalization of key industries, especially petroleum, increased government funding of education and health care.

Sixty percent of the Venezuelan people lived in poverty when Chavez was elected president in 1999. As a result of his socialist policies, poverty has been reduced significantly in Venezuela. According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America, the poverty rate fell from 48.6 percent in 2002 to 29.5 percent in 2011.

Chavez was a strong advocate of south-south cooperation. He allied himself with Left-leaning countries like Castro's Cuba, Evo Morales' Bolivia, Rafael Correa's Ecuador, and Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua, forming a "pink tide" sweeping Latin America. His support of Latin American and Caribbean cooperation led to the creation of the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, the Bank of the South and the regional TV network Telesur.

He was first and foremost an anti-imperialist. Standing up against the United States, he became a symbol of Latin American independence and dignity.

That was why the United States openly supported a coup in 2002 to topple Chavez. The then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer even declared "a transitional civilian government has been installed." The coup eventually failed.

The fight goes on. Chavez died at 58. He had not had the time to do all he wanted to do. Inflation and crime rates are still high in Venezuela. It is up to his deputy Nicolas Maduro to carry on his work. It is generally believed that Maduro's position is even to Chavez's left. Some have ridiculed him as a mere bus driver with little knowledge. But he proved to be a better foreign minister than most in Latin America.

General elections are scheduled to take place by mid-April. The demoralized opposition will try to stage a come back. We'll see what comes next.

But Latin America is no longer America's "backyard".

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn

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