Like his idol, Fidel Castro, Hugo “El Loco” Chavez’s goal while growing up was to be cheered by thousands of adoring fans — playing baseball in the United States.
But the young Venezuelan with a minor-league pitching arm and major-league ambition had to settle for becoming the self-styled leader of the next generation of Latin American leftists and a virulent enemy of the United States.
He embraced a host of anti-American allies, including Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and called the overthrow of Libya’s Moammar Khadafy “an outrage.”
His bizarre star turn on the international stage came during the opening of the UN General Assembly in September 2006, when he called President George W. Bush “the devil.”
The rostrum where Bush had spoken “still smells of sulfur,” he told delegates. “The United States empire is on the way down and it will be finished in the near future — for the good of all mankind,” he ranted to astonished delegates.
Chavez, born July 28, 1954, grew up poor on the Venezuelan plains and put his baseball aspirations on hold when he joined the army at 17.
By 1992, he was a lieutenant colonel when he tried to sabotage one of Latin America’s strongest democracies by attempting a coup.
The plot failed, but as Chavez, wearing a distinctive red beret, was led to jail, he made an electrifying speech that made his name known.
He was pardoned after two years in jail, and organized a new political party that helped him win the presidency, at age 44, in 1998.
As he became increasingly autocratic, Chavez spoke of his hero worship for Castro and South American liberator Simon Bolivar.
He forced through political changes that included changing the name of the country to the “Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.” He built a huge mausoleum in Caracas to house Bolivar’s remains.
He emulated Castro with long-winded tirades, speaking for nearly 10 hours in one stretch last year.
Three US presidents — Bill Clinton, Geiorge W. Bush and Barack Obama — viewed him with suspicion as a possible exporter of revolution. He was suspected, for example, of using his country’s rich oil revenues to support Colombia’s anti-government FARC rebels.
In return, Chavez accused Washington of orchestrating a coup that briefly drove him from power in 2002 and financing the failed election campaigns to oust him.
His personal diplomacy was underlined by a summit meeting in 2007, when he repeatedly called Spain’s prime minister a “fascist.”
Finally, Spain’s King Carlos said, “Why don’t you shut up?”
But Chavez kept being re-elected — three times — with the adoring support of Venezuela’s low-income “Chavistas.”
He also vowed to continue to seek social change, at home and abroad.
“I’m still a subversive,” he said in 2007. “I think the entire world has to be subverted.”
In 2008, he launched a bid to repeal Venezuela’s term limits and remain in office indefinitely.
“If God gives me life and health, I’ll be with you until 2021. Hey, ho, Chavez will not go!” he declared.
But rumors of his failing health were confirmed in June 2011, when Chavez announced from Havana that he had been undergoing treatment for an unspecified cancer.
He admitted that he had endangered his health through lack of sleep — and drinking as many as 40 cups of coffee a day.
But he managed to get re-elected to another six-year term in 2012, and boasted that tests showed he was cancer-free.
He wasn’t. Two months after the election, he went to Cuba for his fourth cancer surgery.
He returned after 10 weeks, and was never seen in public again.