Twelve years later, the fiery former city councilor rode a conservative backlash to City Hall, after initiatives like downtown bike lanes were seen by suburbanites as wasteful, elitist intrusions.
Chavez, though cancer-stricken in recent years, had led the oil-rich Latin American nation for nearly 14 years while espousing a fiery brand of socialism and bickering with a succession of U.S. governments over what he called Washington's hegemony in the region.