Caracas, Venezuela.- The head of State, Nicolas Maduro, today recalled the swearing in of Hugo Chavez (1954-2013) as the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, after the approval of the 1999 Constitution.

‘A new period, a new hope, start for Venezuela (…) Venezuela raises on new foundations’ were the words of our Commander Hugo Chavez 18 years ago when he was sworn in as the first president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,’ Maduro wrote on his Twitter account.

On August 19, 2000, Chavez was sworn in for the second time as the president of the South American nation, this time under the new Carta Magna approved by the Venezuelan people in a democratic, secret and universal voting, at a popular referendum on December 15, 1999.

After the re-foundation of the Republic, following the approval of the new Constitution, the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution went to the polls again, where he was elected by nearly 60 percent of voters for a six-year term.