Updated: Jan. 23, 2012

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez has taken over from Fidel Castro the mantle of Latin America’s leading opponent of the United States, which remains the largest customer for Venezuela’s oil.

Mr. Chávez, a former colonel first elected in 1998 on a populist platform, has carried out a series of steps that he says are reshaping his country’s economy to match his vision of “21st century socialism.”

The country’s economy is dominated by the oil industry. And the president has sought to counter American influence in the region, seizing control of the oil assets of American and European energy companies, and in other ways consolidating state control over the economy and nationalizing telephone and electricity companies. He proclaimed a “Bolivarian revolution,” named for the hero of Latin American independence, and proclaimed the United States to be a threat, in part because of its indirect support for a coup that briefly ousted him in 2002.

President Obama, whose foreign policy attention has been focused outside of Latin America, adopted a nonconfrontational approach to Mr. Chávez that stands in contrast to the Bush administration’s often aggressive response to his taunts and insults. At one point, Mr. Chávez had proclaimed former President George W. Bush to be “the devil” in an address to the United Nations. 

In September 2010, supporters of Mr. Chavez won a majority in legislative elections, but the opposition secured at least one-third of the seats, giving it the ability to block critical legislation and top federal appointments. The results set the stage for a potentially vibrant challenge by the opposition for the presidency in 2012, when the president’s current six-year term ends.

Mr. Chávez Battles Cancer

In June 2011, Mr. Chávez was hospitalized while on a visit to Cuba. As his recovery dragged on and Mr. Chávez remained in seclusion, his opponents seized on questions over whether the Constitution allows him to oversee national affairs for an undetermined stretch of time from outside the country. On June 30, Mr. Chávez shocked the nation by revealing that he had a cancerous tumor removed and would “continue battling.” He returned to Venezuela in July, where he began chemotherapy at a military hospital in Caracas.

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On Oct. 20, Mr. Chávez announced that he had beaten cancer. “No abnormal cellular activity exists,” said Mr. Chávez in comments broadcast on state media while on a visit to western Venezuela, where he was preparing to visit a Roman Catholic shrine.

The same week, Salvador Navarrete, a prominent Venezuelan doctor who described himself as the president’s former personal surgeon, said that Mr. Chávez had less than two years to live, attributing his illness to a “very aggressive” tumor in the pelvic area.

In the interview, Dr. Navarrete offered other details about Mr. Chávez’s health. He said the president had been treated for bipolar disorder, and that Mr. Chávez smoked cigarettes and consumed copious amounts of coffee.

Throughout the summer and fall of 2011, Mr. Chávez appeared uncharacteristically frail, when he showed up in public at all. He curtailed a once-busy schedule and stopped conducting his weekly Sunday television program, Aló Presidente, which for years had helped rouse his core supporters and shape the national dialogue.

But in January 2012, Mr. Chávez attempted to assert himself in a tough campaign for re-election later in the year. As if to broadcast his renewed vigor, Mr. Chávez spoke for more than nine hours in his annual address to the National Assembly on Jan. 13, never sitting down and pausing only to take questions from legislators.

Commentators said that the speech, the equivalent of a State of the Union address, was his longest ever and that Mr. Chávez was intent on showing voters and politicians in his own party and the opposition that his powers were not diminished.

But speculation rages that he is much sicker than he has let on, raising doubts about his ability to campaign for re-election or govern for another term.

Ties With China

Mr. Chávez  said in April 2010 that China had agreed to extend $20 billion in loans to Venezuela, pointing to deepening ties between the two countries as China seeks to secure oil supplies there.

The announcement of the loans followed other financing agreements with China that softened a sharp economic downturn in Venezuela, including a $12 billion bilateral investment fund. China’s ties with Venezuela have grown increasingly warm in recent years, marked by rising Venezuelan oil exports to China, the Chinese launching of a satellite for Venezuela and the sale of Chinese military aircraft to Venezuela.

Venezuela, faced with a slump in oil production, has recently been seeking to reach similar deals with energy companies from Russia, India and Spain, as well as the Chevron Corporation from the United States.

Chávez and Colombia’s Rebels

Ties between Venezuela and Colombia are at a low point. Despite repeated denials by President Chávez, Venezuelan officials have continued to assist commanders of Colombia’s largest rebel group, helping them arrange weapons deals in Venezuela and even obtain identity cards to move with ease on Venezuelan soil, according to computer material captured from the rebels in recent months and under review by Western intelligence agencies.

Mr. Chávez froze diplomatic relations between the two countries in late July 2009, chafing at assertions by Colombia’s government that Swedish rocket launchers sold to Venezuela ended up in the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Venezuela’s reaction was also fueled by Colombia’s plans to increase American troop levels there.

Mr. Chávez has disputed claims of his government’s collaboration with the rebels since Colombian forces raided a FARC encampment in Ecuador in 2008. During the raid, Colombian commandos obtained the computers of a FARC commander with encrypted e-mail messages that described a history of close ties between Mr. Chávez’s government and the rebel group, which has long crossed over into Venezuelan territory for refuge.

Venezuela’s alliances with leftist governments in Latin America, like Cuba and Bolivia, and outside the region with Iran and Belarus have been a continued source of tension with the United States.

While Mr. Chávez is popular with a majority of voters, Venezuelan society remains deeply polarized. His supporters credit him with channeling oil revenues to the poor through an array of social welfare programs. Critics, however, say his government is adopting measures that limit freedom of expression and lacks transparency in dealing with private industry.

A Surge in Deadly Violence

Venezuela has struggled with a decade-long surge in homicides, with about 118,541 since President Hugo Chávez took office in 1999, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a group that compiles figures based on police files. (The government has stopped publicly releasing its own detailed homicide statistics, but has not disputed the group’s numbers, and news reports citing unreleased government figures suggest human rights groups may actually be undercounting murders).

There have been 43,792 homicides in Venezuela since 2007, according to the violence observatory, compared with about 28,000 deaths from drug-related violence in Mexico since that country’s assault on cartels began in late 2006.

Reasons for the surge are complex and varied, experts say. While many Latin American economies are growing fast, Venezuela’s has continued to shrink. The gap between rich and poor remains wide, despite spending on anti-poverty programs, fueling resentment. Adding to that, the nation is awash in millions of illegal firearms.

Police salaries remain low, sapping motivation. And in a country with the highest inflation rate in the hemisphere, more than 30 percent a year, some officers have turned to supplementing their incomes with crimes like kidnappings.

But some crime specialists say another factor has to be considered: Mr. Chávez’s government itself. The judicial system has grown increasingly politicized, losing independent judges and aligning itself more closely with Mr. Chávez’s political movement. Many experienced state employees have had to leave public service, or even the country.

The Opposition Gains Strength

The results of the September 2010 legislative elections revealed a popular vote across the country that was about evenly split, and may open a new phase of negotiation and debate within Venezuela’s political system. The National Assembly had been tightly controlled by Mr. Chávez’s allies since 2005, when the opposition tactically erred by boycotting legislative elections that year.

Mr. Chávez’s United Socialist Party won at least 90 of the legislature’s 165 seats, while a coalition of opposition parties won at least 59 seats, while several other seats went to a small unaligned leftist party and to indigenous groups.

The vote also reflected the capability of Mr. Chávez’s opponents to appeal to large blocs of the electorate.

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