( CNN ) -- Hugo Chavez was always a leader with one eye fixed on his own place in history . In his frequent bombastic moments , the late Venezuelan president liked to imagine himself still in power in 2021 , the bicentenary of his nation 's independence , and as a latter-day Simon Bolivar , the Caracas-born soldier-statesman who liberated much of South America from Spanish rule and remains one of the continent 's most revered sons . Some saw in Chavez 's overseeing of the reinterment of Bolivar 's remains in a grandiose new mausoleum -- perhaps with his own fading health in mind -- an attempt to forge that connection in monumental form . Hugo Chavez , influential leader with mixed record , dies at 58 . Yet , it 's only now , with Chavez 's premature death Tuesday at age 58 , that we can begin to assess the legacy of one of the early 21st century 's most politically gifted but divisive figures and his self-styled `` Bolivarian Revolution . '' Having once served time in jail for leading a failed coup , Chavez perhaps made an unlikely convert to democracy . Yet , through a blaze of landslide elections and referenda , he placed his fortunes in the hands of the poor and the marginalized , demanding their votes as a first step towards building a new political order that would work in their interests . Chavez 's initial 1998 election victory was hailed by the vote observers of the U.S.-based Carter Center as `` a true demonstration of democracy at work '' and `` a peaceful revolution through the ballot box . '' In that year , Chavez won 56 % of the vote on a 65 % turnout . When he earned re-election in 2006 , his support had swelled to almost 63 % on a near-75 % turnout -- the high watermark of his electoral fortunes . Between the two , Chavez defied an attempted coup in 2002 when hundreds of thousands of his supporters poured down from the hillside barrios of Caracas in protest , and a 2004 opposition-orchestrated referendum on his leadership made possible by the constitution introduced by Chavez himself in 1999 . Chavez leaves a revolutionary legacy . `` A strange dictator , this Hugo Chavez , '' wrote Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano at the time of that referendum . Galeano is the author of a leading dependency theory interpretation of Latin American history , `` The Open Veins of Latin America , '' that Chavez gave to U.S. President Barack Obama as a present after he won election . `` This tyrant invented by the mass media , this fearsome demon , has just given a tremendous vitamin-injection to democracy , which , both in Latin America and elsewhere , has become rickety and enfeebled , '' Galeano wrote of Chavez . Once in power , Chavez diverted revenues from Venezuela 's oil industry into a series of healthcare , education and anti-poverty initiatives known as misiones , opening subsidized supermarkets and clinics -- many staffed by Cuban medics -- in the country 's poorest communities . Between 1998 and 2006 the percentage of Venezuelans living below the poverty line fell from 50.4 % to 36.3 % , according to statistics from the World Bank 's Databank . Infant mortality fell from 20.3 per thousand births when Chavez came to power to 12.9 by 2011 , according to the same source . Education also became more accessible , with the number of children enrolled in secondary education rising from 48 % in 1999 to 72 % in 2010 , according to UNESCO figures . Visiting Caracas ahead of the 2006 election , I met a friend who had recently graduated from a newly established public university which charged its students just 300 bolivars a term , at the time the equivalent of about 15 cents . Previously , he explained , students in higher education had to pay about 1 million bolivars a month to go to a private university . As we walked , he pointed out a stall selling orange juice for 500 bolivars a glass . `` Look at that , '' said my friend , `` education under Chavez is cheaper than orange juice . '' iReport : Share your thoughts on the death of the Venezuelan president . Yet it will be for his interventions on the world stage that Chavez will be remembered beyond his homeland . Outspoken and often wildly undiplomatic , Chavez thrived on the intransigence and widespread international unpopularity of the George W. Bush-era White House , never more so than when he referred to his then-US counterpart as `` the devil '' in addressing the U.N. General Assembly in 2006 . In Latin America , he provided inspiration for the rise of a generation of leftist leaders , notably Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador , and breathed fresh life -- and oil supplies -- into Cuba 's anemic revolution . Others in Brazil and Argentina benefited from the renewed sense of regional confidence and solidarity that Chavez brought to the table . He also had a deft appreciation of the mischievous power of gesture politics , sending `` humanitarian aid '' in the form of discounted fuel to one of the most deprived areas of New York 's Bronx in 2005 , and signing a gas deal with London in 2007 that funded cut-price bus fares for a quarter of a million of the British capital 's poorest residents . In the more nuanced Obama era , Chavez cut a less assured and less influential figure , particularly as his health problems forced him to step back from the limelight . His longstanding willingness to seek common cause with any regime also at odds with the West -- Iran , Syria and Belarus among them -- also came with considerable cost for his credibility , most notably in his enduring loyalty to late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi . The world reacts . At home , too , Chavez 's scorecard remained blotted by the chronic failure to tackle the violent crime that make Caracas one of the world 's most dangerous cities , by complaints about press freedom and economic mismanagement , and by the gradual blurring of elements of grassroots participatory democracy with a less savory streak of populist authoritarianism . Ultimately though , any judgment of Chavez 's merits and failings will largely come down to political taste , with enough evidence to make for compelling argument on both sides . What is not in question is the formidable force of personality and political skill that enabled him to unite and hold together a broad leftist alliance always bubbling below the surface with ideological idiosyncrasies and internal divisions , and of the deeply personal bond of loyalty that Chavez commanded among the millions who made up his red T-shirted chavista power base . Whether that coalition holds together in the absence of the charismatic individual that forged it , and what replaces it if it fractures , may be the fundamental question that shapes Venezuela 's post-Chavez future . Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Simon Hooper .
Hugo Chavez seemed an unlikely convert to democracy . He would be known for presence on world stage . He knew leftist leaders in Latin America .