First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities — toilet paper.

Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the embattled socialist government says it will import 50 million rolls to boost supplies.

That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday.

"This is the last straw," said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in downtown Caracas. "I'm 71 years old and this is the first time I've seen this."

---

One supermarket visited by The Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper. Another had just received a fresh batch, and it quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.

"I've been looking for it for two weeks," said Cristina Ramos. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."

Economists say Venezuela's shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

"State-controlled prices — prices that are set below market-clearing price — always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union," said Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.

President Nicolas Maduro, who was selected by the dying Hugo Chavez to carry on his "Bolivarian revolution," claims that anti-government forces, including the private sector, are causing the shortages in an effort to destabilize the country.

The government this week announced it would import 760,000 tons of food and 50 million rolls of toilet paper.

Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming blamed the shortage of toilet tissue on "excessive demand" built up as a result of "a media campaign that has been generated to disrupt the country."

"The revolution will bring the country the equivalent of 50 million rolls of toilet paper," he was quoted as saying Tuesday by state news agency AVN. "We are going to saturate the market so that our people calm down."

Finance Minister Nelson Merentes said the government was also addressing the lack of foreign currency, which has resulted in the suspension of foreign supplies of raw materials, equipment and spare parts to Venezuelan companies, disrupting their production.

"We are making progress ... we have to work very hard," Merentes told reporters Wednesday.

Many factories operate at half capacity because the currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Merentes said the government had met the U.S. dollar requests of some 1,500 small- and medium-sized companies facing supply problems, and was reviewing requests from a similar number of larger companies.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses.

Anointed by Chavez as his successor before the president died from cancer, Maduro won a close presidential election April 14 against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who refused to accept the result, claiming Maduro won through fraud and voter intimidation. He filed a complaint to the Supreme Court, asking for the vote to be annulled, though that's highly unlikely to happen since the court is packed with government-friendly justices.

Patience is wearing thin among consumers who face shortages and long lines at supermarkets and pharmacies. Last month, Venezuela's scarcity index reached its highest level since 2009, while the 12-month inflation rate has risen to nearly 30 percent. Shoppers often spend several days looking for basic items, and stock up when they find them.

Fleming, the commerce minister, said monthly consumption of toilet paper was normally 125 million rolls, but that current demand "leads us to think that 40 million more are required."

"We will bring in 50 million to show those groups that they won't make us bow down," he said.

CARACAS - Police fired tear gas in downtown Caracas on Thursday as anti-government student protesters clashed with supporters of late President Hugo Chavez in an increasingly volatile atmosphere ahead of next month's election.

Several hundred students were marching to the election board's headquarters to demand a clean vote when they were blocked by government supporters who hurled stones, bottles and eggs at them, a Reuters witness said.

Some of the students threw stones back, other witnesses said.

"We were holding a peaceful march. ... All we want is democracy," said law student Eduardo Vargas, 19, whose eye was injured in the incident. "We're all Venezuelans. We just want a fair vote."

---

Police fired tear gas toward the 150 or so government supporters and formed a cordon between the two sides.

 

It was the first outbreak of violence since an election was called on April 14 for the South American OPEC nation following Chavez's death from cancer two weeks ago.

Both candidates, acting President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles, have been trading personal accusations as they rally supporters for the vote.

One onlooker, Gustavo Malave, a 78-year-old who works for one of the socialist "community councils" set up during Chavez's 14-year rule, blamed the students for starting the trouble.

"The clash began because the opposition started throwing stones," he said. "I support Chavez and Maduro. Chavez set this course, and it's going to continue for 40 or 50 years."

Before the clash, the students had been marching to the election headquarters singing the national anthem and carrying signs including "Free and fair elections" and "Nicolas is a liar."

"The students are saying to the world and to the country that we are in the street. We want transparent and free elections," said one student leader, Victor Fernandez.

Maduro at an evening campaign rally called the students "a small group of recalcitrant right-wing people."

"None of us can ... be provoked by those tiny groups that make a living off hatred," he said.

He said the group had links to two U.S. diplomats expelled on the day of Chavez's death on charges they were attempting to conspire with the Venezuelan military.

"I want you to know that those two men directly gave orders and instructions and money to this same group," he said.

That charge follows a flurry of recent accusations against U.S. authorities including a charge that the State Department is seeking to kill Capriles to spark a coup.

Washington denies the accusation.

With sympathy over Chavez's death galvanizing government supporters, Maduro, 50, a longtime socialist stalwart, is favorite to win next month's vote.

Two polls published this week put the former bus driver ahead of Capriles by more than 14 percentage points.

Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, accuses Maduro of being a nonentity who is exploiting the emotion around Chavez's death. He wants voters to focus on daily problems confronting Venezuelans ranging from potholes to high crime rates and corruption.

Capriles, a centrist politician who says Brazil's free-market economics with strong welfare policies is his model for Venezuela, lost to Chavez last year by 11 percentage points.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro was sworn in as acting president Friday, against objections from the country's political opposition that the move violates the country's constitution. Maduro named as his vice president the son-in-law of the late President Hugo Chavez.

Chavez had hand-picked Maduro, his vice president, as his successor before he died of cancer Tuesday.

Opposition leaders said the swearing-in violates the constitution because Chavez was never sworn in after he won re-election last fall. The socialist leader was too ill at the time.

"I want the world to know that this is a fraudulent swearing-in," said Henrique Capriles, the opposition leader who ran against Chavez in the October elections. He added that Venezuela's presidency should not be achieved by decree.

According to the country's constitution, the National Assembly speaker should become interim president if a president-elect dies without having been sworn in.

---

Maduro is a former bus driver and union leader who now leads the Chavista movement. This week, Maduro blamed "enemy countries" for Chavez's cancer.

The constitution stipulates new elections should be called within 30 days. Maduro called for a snap election in a few weeks. Officials are expected to announce a date on Saturday, Reuters reported. 

Maduro's new vice president is Jorge Arreaza, who is married to Chavez's daughter María Gabriela. Arreaza has been the Venezuelan government's science and technology minister.

NBC News' Erika Angulo contributed to this report.

 

CARACAS, Venezuela — Hugo Chavez did something a bit strange last summer. 

He secretly sent a team of forensic scientists to open the coffin of independence hero Simon Bolivar and exhume his remains.

The Venezuelan president wanted to investigate exactly how Bolivar, who was instrumental in driving the Spanish out of Latin America, died almost two centuries ago.

While most historians say tuberculosis killed Bolivar when he was 47, Chavez had another theory. He suspected that Bolivar was poisoned.

---

At the time, Chavez was campaigning to win another term as president of Venezuela.

Just weeks earlier, the Venezuelan president had declared himself "free, free, totally free," of the cancer that killed him on Tuesday. It was the second time Chavez would claim he was cured.

Throughout his 14-year rule, Chavez often evoked Bolivar's image, claiming his socialist state was just the next stage in Bolivar's campaign to liberate the continent from outside domination.

Chavez made a big show of the investigation on national TV, even showing footage of Bolivar's skeleton while playing the national anthem. "Viva Bolivar," said Chavez. "The great Bolivar has returned!"

Chavez then decided to build a $150 million grandiose monument at the National Pantheon in Caracas to house Bolivar's remains. At the time, Chavez said the aim was to "glorify Bolivar."

Perhaps he had his own final resting place in mind as well.

Under Venezuelan law, only national heroes are bestowed the honor of repose at the National Pantheon, and any candidate must have died at least 25 years earlier.

Already, a national campaign has begun in Venezuela to lay Chavez's remains alongside his beloved Bolivar. There are even loud whispers of initiating a national referendum to vote on changing the Constitution to amend the 25-year rule.

Some of Chavez's supporters allege another thing may unite the two men.

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro promised the government would launch a "scientific investigation" into suspicions that Chavez was poisoned. Who would be responsible? Maduro blamed "the country's historical enemies."

Time will tell if the investigation into Chavez's illness reveals anything nefarious behind the cancer that killed him. They couldn't prove much testing Bolivar's remains.

"We could not establish death was by non-natural means or by intentional poisoning," the Chavez government admitted.

For Chavez, that didn't matter. To the day he died, he continued to believe there had been a "great farce" and "cover-up" of Bolivar's death. 

"They killed Simon Bolívar. They murdered him and, even though I don't have proof, the circumstances in which he died point to that," he concluded.

Chavez's supporters are now on the hunt for their own smoking gun.

Related:

Full coverage of Hugo Chavez's death from NBC News

'We'll carry on your fight': Venezuelans mourn Hugo Chavez

Socialist socialites: Hollywood mourns Hugo Chavez

More than two dozen world leaders bid farewell Friday to the late Hugo Chavez at a lengthy, emotional funeral where the Rev. Jesse Jackson portrayed the Venezuelan president as a hero of the poor, while pushing for the nation’s rapprochement with the United States.

"How do we measure a great leader? By how he treats the least of these," Jackson said in his eulogy, standing before Chavez’s flag-draped coffin at the military academy in Caracas. "Hugo fed the hungry. He lifted the poor. He raised their hopes. He helped them realize their dreams."

He called for the leaders of the United States and Venezuela to meet and resolve tensions that deepened during the 14-year tenure of Chavez who regularly ranted against "imperialist" America.

---

"We pray God today that you will heal the breach between the U.S. and Venezuela," Jackson said. "While it may be politically difficult, it's the morally right thing to do."

Jackson was joined at the service by row after row of dark-suited heads of state – including Cuban President Raul Castro and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Movie star Sean Penn appeared — a testament to the socialist showman’s Hollywood appeal.

Chavez, 58, died Tuesday after a nearly two-year battle with a mystery cancer that had him shuttling between Cuba and Venezuela for treatment and prevented him from being sworn in for a fourth term.

His send-off has been rich in pageantry. It started with a six-mile funeral procession through mobbed streets Wednesday, after which his body was placed in the military academy, where it will remain for a week before it’s put on permanent display at a museum.

At the funeral, four Presidential Guard soldiers in red dress uniforms festooned with gold braid flanked his casket near a huge photo of the ex-paratrooper in his trademark green uniform and red beret.

Fittingly for a man who sang and danced on his weekly TV show, Chavez’s funeral was full of music, including folk tunes from a congressman in a cowboy hat.

Chavez’s hand-picked successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, placed a golden sword on the casket — a symbol of Latin American revolutionary Simon Bolivar, who inspired the late president’s philosophy and politics.

Maduro was slated to be sworn in as interim president Friday, ahead of an election to be held within 30 days — news that immediately sparked controversy.

The opposition said it would boycott the swearing-in, insisting the speaker of the National Assembly — and not Maduro, who will be running for president — should fill the temporary opening.

Jackson told the crowd Venezuelans could be thankful for an “orderly transition.”

"With Maduro, grant him wisdom and support as he keeps hopes and dreams alive, as he picks up the baton and makes a great nation greater,” he said in his sermon.

Maduro, who last week accused the United States of causing Chavez’s illness, had a message for Washington: "We love all the people of our America, but we want relations of respect, of cooperation, of true peace.”

Maduro did most of the speaking at the service, his thunderous voice cracking at times.

"Here you are commander with your men, standing, all your men and women, loyal as we swore before you, loyal until beyond death," he shouted. "We have smashed the curse of betrayal of the country and we will smash the curse of defeat and regression."

The United States was represented at the funeral by two Democratic politicians — Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and former Massachusetts Congressman William Delahunt.

"My deepest sympathies go out to the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela,” Meeks said in a statement.

"Venezuela is an important nation to the Western Hemisphere. I remain committed to building the relationship between our nations. As always, I stand in continued support of the Venezuelan people especially at this time of mourning."

After the funeral, Ahmadinejad spoke on state-run television and said he had come to pay tribute to a man of the people who would be remembered as a "historic and global figure."

"He was able to raise the profile of and put Venezuela on the global stage," the Iranian leader said.

In the wealthier neighborhoods of Caracas there were few tears for Chavez, who was disliked by some for his economic policies and polarizing politics.

 "This is a big joke," Eduardo Perez, a 44-year-old lawyer, told the Associated Press, referring to the extended funeral. "I feel ridiculous as a Venezuelan."

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Related: 

Chavez, his hero Bolivar to be united in death?

Socialist socialites: Hollywood mourns Hugo Chavez

Full coverage of Hugo Chavez's death from NBC News

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 8, 2013 6:18 AM EST

Hugo Chavez's body will be permanently displayed in a special tomb, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced Thursday on state television.

Maduro said the official state funeral will begin Friday at 10:30 a.m. ET. Some 30 heads of state along with delegations from 50 countries are expected to attend. Following the ceremony, Chavez's body will lie in state for seven additional days, so that more people can see it.

---

People have been waiting up to 12 hours to pay their respects in a line that snakes for more than a mile.

Maduro also announced that Chavez's body will be preserved in the same manner as that of Russia's Vladimir Lenin or China's Mao Zedong, so "he will always be with the people."

Visitors will be able to view Chavez's body in a special tomb now under construction in a Caracas museum devoted to his populist revolution. The site is called el Museo Histórico Militar de Caracas or Cuartel 4 de Febrero.

Maduro again called for peace and calm and thanked the public for respecting the solemnity of this occasion.

Friday afternoon, the parliament will hold a special session to swear in Maduro as acting president. Elections are expected to take place within 30 days.

Chavez, the socialist leader who ran Venezuela for 14 years, lost his two-year battle with cancer Tuesday. His illness was first detected in his pelvic region in 2011. He was 58.

NBC News' Mary Murray, Mark Potter and Roxanne Garcia contributed to this report.

CARACAS — Condolences flooded in from all over the globe and more than 100 countries will be sending emissaries to Friday's funeral for Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who succumbed to cancer on Tuesday after a 20-month battle.

Even Washington will be represented, despite the contentious relations between the two governments. Just hours before the 58-year old president died, Caracas expelled two American military officials attached to the U.S. mission for allegedly committing acts to "destabilize" the Chavez government.

---

Friday's funeral and burial will be more formal than Wednesday's procession of his casket through the streets of Caracas.

For ten hours, an estimated one million Venezuelans followed the coffin for miles as it traveled from the military hospital where Chavez died to the Military Academy, where he studied to become a paratrooper.

It was a parade of emotions, with men and women of all ages weeping openly. As the caravan moved slowly through the streets, mourners tossed flowers, flags and red caps with Chavez slogans on the casket until it was completely covered in a mound of mementos.  Chavez's immediate family rode in the funeral procession.

Overnight, thousands have stood in line to pay their last respects, many wearing the bright blue, red and yellow colors of the country's national flag. As mourners filed past the coffin, there were scenes of genuine sadness and dismay. Some people prayed while others saluted his remains. His supporters are devastated but also promising to keep his revolution alive.

"Comandante — rest in peace. We'll carry on your fight," said Cesar Trompiz, a university student who appreciated what he called Chavez's "powerful connection" to the country's poor. "He was one of us. He looked like us. He spoke like us," Trompiz added.

'Without you, we're nothing'
Guillermo Hernan and members of his family traveled from Chavez's hometown in northwest Venezuela to pay their respects. He helped his elderly mother walk past the casket as she wailed, "Without you, we're nothing." Hernan said that Chavez taught him to love his country.

"We were orphans before Chavez. We had no father and we had no motherland. Chavez became our father and gave us the right to our homeland," said Hernan. In his 20s, he said the government's policies have helped his family with housing and education.

While the depth of the grief for millions here cannot be understimated, Chavez was also a polarizing figure for millions of other Venezuelans vehemently opposed to his leftist policies and close political allegiances with countries like Cuba and China. The two sides are known to clash verbally and some observers had feared that Chavez's death would spark civil unrest. But since Tuesday's announcement, the opposition has toned down its political rhetoric — urging the president's enemies to be respectful of Chavez's grieving family during this difficult time.

However, many expect politics as usual to crank up as soon as the nation's seven-day official mourning period ends.

Under the Constitution, a national vote must be called within 30 days of the office being vacated and, from then, the election must take place 30 days later. Although no specific date has been announced, one source reports that Venezuelans may be going to the polls to decide on Chavez's replacement during the second weekend in April.

Related:

Hugo Chavez's last words: 'Please don't let me die,' general says

Socialist socialites: Hollywood mourns Hugo Chavez

A view from Tehran's street: Hugo Chavez a friend

Full coverage of Hugo Chavez's death from NBC News

As thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas to mourn President Hugo Chavez after learning of his death Tuesday, tributes began pouring in from supporters around the world — including several Hollywood heavyweights who stood by the socialist firebrand during his reign.

Actor Sean Penn, one of the Latin American leader's most vocal supporters (he once joined Chavez on the campaign trail and attended a candlelight vigil for him in Bolivia last year) said the United States had "lost a friend it never knew it had."

---

"And poor people around the world lost a champion," Penn said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela."

Related: Sean Penn on Hugo Chavez's death: 'I lost a friend'

Filmmaker Oliver Stone, who first met Chavez in December 2007 and credited him for many of the social changes taking place in South America, said the former leader would live forever in history.

''I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place," Stone said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live forever in history."

"My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned," Stone added.

Actor Danny Glover, who had visited Chavez in Venezuela several times, echoed the same sentiment.

"In sadness and in tribute to my friend, Hugo Chavez, I join with millions of Venezuelans, Latin Americans, Caribbeans, fellow U.S. citizens  and millions of freedom-loving people around the world, in hope for a rewarding future for the democratic and social development charter of the Bolivarian Revolution,” Glover told theGrio.

“We all embraced Hugo Chavez as a social-champion of democracy, material development, and spiritual well-being.”

Others, including Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, paid their respects via Twitter. "So long comandante @chavezcandanga, we will miss you forever #ChavezVive," Maradona posted Wednesday. 

"Ruling Classes hated Hugo Chavez. RIP," tweeted comedian Roseanne Barr.

"You won't hear much nice about him in the US media in the next few days. So, I thought I'd say a couple things to provide some balance," tweeted filmmaker Michael Moore Tuesday.

"54 countries around the world allowed the US to detain(& torture) suspects. Latin America, thanks 2 Chavez, was the only place that said no," he added.

"We spoke for over an hour," Moore said of an encounter with Chavez in 2009. "He said he was happy 2 finally meet someone Bush hated more than him."

Hundreds of Venezuelans poured into the streets of Caracas to mourn President Hugo Chavez after learning of his death Tuesday.

Chavez, 58, the socialist leader who ran Venezuela for 14 years, lost his two-year battle with cancer, which was first detected in his pelvic region in 2011.

"It's a moment of deep pain," Vice President Nicolas Maduro said, as he announced Chavez's passing and urged the nation not to resort to expressions of violence.

The deceased leader's daughter, María Gabriela Chavez, tweeted to her followers: "I don't have words. Eternally, THANK YOU! Strength! We must follow his example. We must continue building our NATION! Always daddy of mine!"

A public funeral is scheduled for Chavez on Friday, followed by seven days of mourning.

---

Venezuelans -- some in tears, some chanting "Long live Chavez!" -- gathered near the Miraflores presidential palace and outside the military hospital where Chavez died, The Associated Press reported.

"I feel such big pain I can't even speak," Yamilina Barrios, a 39-year-old office worker, told the AP. "He was the best thing the country had ... I adore him. Let's hope the country calms down and we can continue the tasks he left us."

"He was our father. 'Chavismo' will not end. We are his people. We will continue to fight!" Nancy Jotiya, 56, in Caracas' downtown Bolivar Square, told Reuters.

As the streets filled with people and stores closed early, additional police were sent to monitor the crowds. Reuters reported isolated violent incidents, including the burning of tents used by students who had been protesting against secrecy surrounding Chavez's condition.

The oil-financed social policies implemented throughout his rule earned Chavez the support of the poor but also disapproval from Venezuela's business community and the wealthy.

"At last!" shouted some women in an upscale neighborhood, according to Reuters.

Condolences also poured in from leaders and politicians around the world.

Among those who made public remarks was Henrique Capriles Radonski, who faced Chavez in the nation's elections last October.

"We hurt for the feelings of pain of the deceased president's family, and of his colleagues and many Venezuelans, our most heartfelt condolences," Capriles said. "This is not a moment to highlight what separates us. In hours of anguish, families and a people, who are a great family, must unite in prayer, in mediation. Not time of difference, time of union."

Capriles lost to Chavez in October, but the latter was not sworn in due to his illness.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Tuesday that Maduro will be interim president, and also run as the governing party candidate in elections that will be called within 30 days. Jaua said it was Chavez's wish that Maduro should be the socialist party candidate.

According to Venezuela's constitution, the executive vice president should be put in charge when the president dies. The constitution, however, also specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, currently Diosdado Cabello, should be in charge if a president can't be sworn in.

NBC News' Edgar Zuniga, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

Venezuela's 'Comandante' Hugo Chavez dies

Analysis: Chavistas begin search for Latin America's next 'Comandante'

Full Venezuela coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Tue Mar 5, 2013 10:11 PM EST

By Carlos Rajo, Commentator, Telemundo

News analysis

Love him or hate him — and plenty of people in Venezuela and around the world felt one of the two emotions — firebrand President Hugo Chavez’s brand of leadership will be hard to replace.

Chavez died Tuesday at age 58, after a long battle with cancer that was shrouded in mystery and prevented him from being inaugurated for a fourth term.

---

Beyond the country’s borders, question marks loom as to whether any regional leader will step into Chavez’s shoes and become the region’s voice of socialism and anti-Americanism.

Chavez, a self-declared socialist, often criticized the United States on its history of intervention in the Americas and Washington's stance on countries such as Iran.

In a 2006 address at the U.N. General Assembly, Chavez called President George W. Bush "the devil."

"The hegemonistic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very existence of the human species," he said during the speech.

Such declarations gave voice to many wishing to shake-off perceived American dominance of Latin America.  His habit of using Venezuela’s vast oil wealth to help prop-up governments in the name of the "Bolivarian Revolution" — named after Simon Bolivar who led 19^th-century movements to end Spain’s colonial rule throughout Latin America — won him many friends.

He also supported cooperation among Latin American nations, and helped establish the Union of South American Nations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas and the Bank of the South.

Nobody in power in the Americas has Chavez’s charisma or power to galvanize millions. More importantly, no other leader — even the ones that share his ideas like Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Bolivia’s Evo Morales or Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner — has the resources and influence of a country such as Venezuela, which has the largest proven oil reserves in the world.

So while many Chavistas are saying "Long live to the King," it is not clear how long the king’s project will survive internationally. The same is the case within Venezuela, but more so.

According to Venezuela’s constitution, an election will need to be called within 30 days of Chavez’s death. Who the Chavistas choose to succeed "El Comandante" will help determine the future of the Bolivarian Revolution.

If Chavez’ will carries beyond the grave, Vice President Nicolas Maduro will be the candidate in the upcoming election. It isn’t only that the 50-year-old former Caracas bus driver and union organizer was appointed by Chavez as his successor, but also that he represents the closest thing to 'Chavismo' without Chavez. 

Preferred candidate
Maduro lacks Chavez’s charisma and popular appeal. At the same time, Maduro accepts all the tenants of Bolivarian socialism – a mix of authoritarianism, state owned enterprises and anti-U.S. rhetoric functioning under some form of democratic governance.

It is no coincidence that Maduro is the preferred candidate of Cuba, Chavez’s closest ally and supporter.

Maduro’s main opposition within his sphere is Diosdado Cabello, a former military officer and currently the President of the National Assembly. Cabello is as wooden publicly as Maduro, but he has the support of another major player in Venezuelan politics and Chavismo itself — the army.

The men in uniform may decide that it is time for a change of regime and not just a change in leader.  Under their influence, there could be a rapprochement with the business sector and thawing in relations with United States. 

Nevertheless, whoever ends up being the Chavistas’ candidate, and assuming he wins the election, the project may still be in danger: Venezuela is still dogged by inflation rates of between 5 and 30 percent a year, a large government deficit, alarming rates of urban violence, shortages in many goods and services, such as electricity, milk, meat and toilet paper. 

So even if the military accepts a Maduro presidency, it isn’t a given that they will support civilian leader to whom they see as too leftist and too close to the Cubans indefinitely. It is also possible that there will be infighting among the Chavistas’ civilian groups, both the politicians who are in charge of the state machinery and the "boligarchs," the moguls who have profited immensely with Chavez in power. 

The reaction of the Chavista popular bases is another potential problem. El Comandante won’t be there to convince them to wait for better times, to accept the shortages, inflation, insecurity and other realities of a dysfunctional and inefficient government.

But equally important, these sectors could become a threat to Chavez’s successor as many are more radical than their leaders...and some are armed.

Telemundo is NBC News' Spanish-language partner.

Related:

Venezuela's 'Comandante' Hugo Chavez dies

World leaders pay tribute to Hugo Chavez

Full Venezuela coverage from NBC News