Chavez legacy of polarised Venezuela risks transition CARACAS: Venezuela faces political infighting and the risk of unrest after the death of Hugo Chavez, whose personal brand of socialism left the region's biggest oil exporter polarized and among the world's most violent countries. The former paratrooper's departure Wednesday after 14 years in office opens up a void, even after the cancer-stricken leader in December urged supporters to elect Vice President Nicolas Maduro to succeed him if he couldn't fulfill a term that began January 10. "He dominated politics so thoroughly that it is impossible to forecast what comes next," said Peter Hakim, former president of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. He was the commanding political presence, virtually the only governing authority in the country. Supporters of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez react to the announcement of his death in Caracas, March 5, 2013. Since Chavez, who was 58, was first elected in 1998, he set himself at the center of all state decisions, big and small. On his weekly television program he might call for the nationalisation of a company, announce a change in the currency, order troop movements or praise the virtues of home gardening. He could harangue ministers, discuss foreign policy and slap hands with union workers in monologues that lasted as long as six hours. "Chavez fed off and expanded the corporatist myth that prosperity can result from loyalty to one man," said Stephen Johnson, former director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "He rode the wave of oil wealth, repeating the old saying that 'Venezuela is rich, you can be too."' Chavez's funeral will be held March 8. Under Venezuela's constitution, an election must be held within 30 days of the president's death. Mr Maduro will serve as interim president until then, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said. Maduro has led Venezuela since Chavez missed his January 10 inauguration. Maduro called for national unity in a speech Wednesday, saying "only together can we guarantee the future of the fatherland." Former National Assembly President Fernando Soto Rojas, a member of the ruling PSUV party, said the legislative chamber's current leader, Diosdado Cabello, should be sworn in until elections are held. Since Chavez announced he had cancer in June 2011, investors have speculated that his departure could pave the way for the opposition to win power and introduce more market- friendly policies. Mr Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and union leader who served as Chavez's foreign minister for more than six years, will face an opposition weakened after regional elections in December in which they lost five of eight governorships. Miranda state Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski, who lost his presidential bid to Chavez by more than 10 percentage points in October, may be the strongest candidate against Mr Maduro after he held onto his seat in the regional vote. If elected president, Mr Capriles would have to work with a national assembly dominated by Chavez's PSUV party, a central bank devoid of autonomy, a judiciary filled with Chavez allies and a politicized military establishment. Venezuela's justice system is beset by corruption and political interference, making it the least accountable in a ranking of 97 nations published Nov. 28 by the World Justice Project, a Washington-based group supported by jurists and businesses that seek to strengthen the rule of law. "Venezuela's institutions are broken," Margarita Lopez Maya, who teaches history at the Central University of Venezuela, said. If Mr Maduro prevails, he will struggle to keep opposing factions in Chavez's own movement together, said David Smilde, a sociologist at the University of Georgia in Athens who has lived in Venezuela for 10 years and wrote a book about Chavez's rule. "It was Chavez, personally, who held the Chavista movement together and settled its internal disputes," said the Inter- American Dialogue's Hakim. He was also the primary factor that unified a raucous opposition. The military will be a key player in any transition, Ms Lopez said.