In Castro void, Chavez inspires left but no icon

By Frank Jack Daniel

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's red beret-wearing President Hugo Chavez has inspired a new generation of Latin American leftists but has a ways to go to achieve the heroic status awarded to his iconic friend Fidel Castro.

Castro, 81, stepped down on Tuesday as Cuba's leader in an armed revolution that made him a hero to guerrillas and young idealists in Latin America, even if he also became a villain for many in the world who saw him as an abusive autocrat.

While he will remain an important influence as the senior statesman in communist Cuba, the ailing Castro's departure after almost half a century in power clears the way for Chavez to try and fill a void as the Latin left's leader.

The burly Chavez, 53, who as a paratrooper led a failed 1992 coup, calls Castro his father, often flies to visit him and shares the bearded Cuban's loathing of the U.S. "empire."

Like his mentor, he rails against U.S. dominance in long and impassioned speeches dressed in military uniform and often ends with a Castro-inspired slogan, "Homeland, socialism or death." Supporters called them both "El Comandante."

"We are all the children of Fidel, the revolutionaries of this continent," Chavez said after Castro resigned.

Many say Chavez aspires to be the galvanizing force that Castro was for many poor nations after his rag-tag rebel army defeated U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Castro touts his protege as the brightest hope to carry on the socialist cause. To an extent Chavez already inherited the mantle of third world leader, forging alliances on the back of his OPEC nation's oil wealth to counter Washington's influence.