Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is dead.

Long serving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez passed on in the late hours of Tuesday after he succumbed to a two year long battle with cancer, ending his 14-year old rule of the South American Country. His death was confirmed by Vice President  Nicolas Maduro

The Vice President, who struggled to hold back tears as he announced Chavez's death, said the government had deployed the armed forces and police "to accompany and protect our people and guarantee the peace."

The late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez

The 58-year-old Socialist leader had undergone four operations in Cuba for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in mid-2011. His last surgery was on December 11 and he had not been seen in public since then.

Despite Chavez's chosing of Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his successor, the Venezuelan opposition is pushing for an election of the Country's President which according to the Constitution, should be conducted within 30 days from the day the President dies  and National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello must take over on an interim basis.

Chavez's choice of heir is therefore seen as a sign of Dictatorship reflected in the failure to honor the constitution and its recommendations.

Soldiers brought the Venezuelan flag down to half-staff at the Caracas Military Hospital, where senior figures in Chavez's government gathered before the cameras of state television to break the news.

Chavez had been checked into the hospital on February 18 for a course of chemotherapy after spending two months in Cuba, where he had undergone several cancer surgeries.

Chavez will be mourned by many of the country's poor, who revered the self-styled revolutionary for using the country's oil riches to fund popular housing, health, food and education programs.