(CNN) -- Minutes after the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was announced, scores of his fellow citizens made their way to El Arepazo, a Venezuelan restaurant outside Miami. The colors of the Venezuelan flag -- red, blue and yellow -- predominated among the crowd of about 200 people, many of whom cheered and waved tiny flags as they bellied up to a buffet stocked with "pabellon criollo," the traditional Venezuelan dish of rice, beans, shredded beef and stewed black beans. "We shouldn't be partying," said Ernesto Ackerman, a Chavez opponent and president of the Independent Venezuelan-American Citizens, a non-profit organization that helps Latinos become U.S. citizens.
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"We shouldn't be partying," says Chavez opponent in South Florida
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"Chavez ruled Venezuela with an iron hand," says Sen. Menendez
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"Good riddance to this dictator," says Rep. Ed Royce
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Chavez sought to help "people who had felt neglected and marginalized," says Jimmy Carter
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"We're only half of the country; the other half still supports @placeholder.
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"By his second full term in office, the concentration of power and erosion of human rights protections had given the government free rein to intimidate, censor, and prosecute @placeholder who criticized the president or thwarted his political agenda," HRW said.