The final days of Hugo Chavez: how he actually died

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez slid into a coma the day before he died of respiratory failure after cancer spread into his lungs, sources say. Chavez's precise condition was one of the world's best-kept secrets since his cancer was announced in June 2011.

Since his death this week, however, details have emerged of the 58-year-old president's battle with cancer and the last moments in the hospital with close family and senior aides.

"They used iPads and other tools to give him policy presentations," one government source told Reuters, referring to ministers' visits to the Havana and Caracas hospitals where he spent his final weeks, unable to speak and breathing through a tube.

When appointing a new foreign minister, aides showed Chavez a list of several possible names, and he put a tick mark beside one - Elias Jaua - before signing the document, the source said.

The December 11 operation lasted six hours and left Chavez in a dire state, with hemorrhaging and a severe lung infection. He lost his pulse several times during the surgery and had to be resuscitated by doctors.

Cuban medics designed a special antibiotic to counter the infection, the medical source said, but even so Chavez had to undergo a tracheotomy to enable him to breathe through a tube in the windpipe.

In his last few days, a heavily-dosed Chavez met only with his closest family and aides despite a clamor from Venezuelan supporters - and opponents - to see him.

Even one of his closest friends and allies, Bolivia's leftist leader Evo Morales, was not allowed in to see him on visits to Caracas and Havana.

On Saturday, ministers were with him for about five hours, before a rapid deterioration began. He slipped into a coma on Monday and died at 4:25 p.m. local time (2055 GMT) on Tuesday.