Hugo Chavez

Venezuela's president from 1999 until his death in 2013 was the face of 21st-century socialism in Latin America. Chavez used oil wealth to fund social programmes that dramatically reduced poverty and illiteracy, earning him devoted support among the poor. But he also centralised power, attacked press freedom, aligned with Cuba and Iran, and left behind an economic model so dependent on oil that when prices crashed, Venezuela descended into the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere under his successor Nicolas Maduro.