Hugo Chavez

[artemis]

C'mon, guys, now in Brazil? What the hell are they doing to him?

"Venezuela's Chavez to get cancer treatment in Brazil

BRASILIA/CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will travel to Brazil for cancer treatment, a Brazilian government source told Reuters on Thursday, the latest sign that the socialist leader is still battling the illness after undergoing surgery in Cuba.

Chavez will travel to Brazil's Sirio-Libanes hospital in Sao Paulo, renowned for its cancer treatment facilities, the source said, adding that no timeline has been set for his arrival.

There was no official confirmation from Caracas. A high-ranking Venezuelan government official, when asked if Chavez would go to Brazil for treatment, said "I don't know."

A prolonged illness requiring Chavez to step aside or preventing him from governing could destabilize the oil-producing nation because he has no evident successor.

Going to Brazil for treatment may suggest his cancer is still serious. He has appeared animated in recent television appearances though at times looks pale and appears to walk with discomfort.

Chavez has revealed he may have to receive chemotherapy and said the operation in Cuba removed a "baseball-size" tumor. He has not said exactly where the cancer is, only that he was operated on in the pelvic region.

A source linked to Venezuela's diplomatic community said, based on information from the Brazilian government, that Chavez's family was pressuring him to go to Brazil to ensure he gets the best treatment and returns to Venezuela quickly.

Many in Venezuela had expected Chavez to return to Cuba, which would fuel criticism from opponents about his close links to the Communist-led island.

His nearly month-long stay there in June caused a wave of rumors and concerns about tensions among allies.

The Sirio-Libanes hospital is renowned for its cancer center that treated Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff when she was recovering from lymphoma before she ran for office.

Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo has undergone cancer treatment there as well.

Brazil's government has offered to host Chavez if he seeks medical treatment there."

[artemis]

What a twisted mess!

"Hugo Chavez returns to Cuba to begin chemotherapy

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned to Cuba to begin chemotherapy nearly a month after surgery to remove a tumor, and he is expressing optimism the treatment will help him survive his cancer.

Chavez said he would start the treatment in Havana on Sunday in an attempt to ensure cancer cells do not reappear following last month's operation.

"We're going to give it everything we've got," Chavez said in a televised speech shortly before he left Caracas on Saturday. He said there is always a risk cancer cells might show up again, "and therefore there's a need to attack hard through chemotherapy."

Chavez was accompanied by one of his daughters, Rosa, who held his hand as they boarded the presidential jet.

"It's not time to die. It's time to live," Chavez said. "I'm saying goodbye for some days, but in a deeper sense I'm not saying goodbye. ... I'll be attentive every day, every hour, every minute to internal events and I'll be in permanent contact."

The 56-year-old leftist leader made contingencies for his absence by delegating some of his duties to Vice President Elias Jaua and Planning and Finance Minister Jorge Giordani.

Chavez, who has held dominant power during more than 12 years in office, has refused opposition demands that he temporarily cede all his powers to Jaua while undergoing chemotherapy, but he said at a televised Cabinet meeting that he would hand off some administrative responsibilities. Chavez said his decision to entrust some of duties to aides was a result of "deep reflection" while coping with his illness.

He said the vice president would oversee budget transfers to government ministries, presidential commissions, any approved expropriations of businesses and other budget-related responsibilities. Giordani is to deal with matters including budget shortfalls and certain tax exemptions.

Chavez denied he was in any way ceding his functions as president.

He said that if his physical capacities were diminished in the future, "I would be the first in doing what the constitution says" in delegating his position to the vice president.

In a speech to party leaders and aides Saturday afternoon, he called for them to defeat any internal divisions, describing such conflicts as "cancerous tumors within the political body."

"Unity, unity, unity," Chavez said.

He repeated that message later as he addressed troops and supporters on the steps of the presidential palace. He announced new appointments for five generals, including the chief of his presidential guard, saying the moves were to "continue strengthening the unity of the Armed Force."

"Military unity, civilian unity. ... National unity. That's one of the greatest ways you can help me now," Chavez said. "I will return, and I'll return better than I'm going away."

Chavez spent much of June in Cuba undergoing surgeries to remove an abscess and the tumor. He made a surprise return from Cuba to Venezuela on July 4 and during nearly two weeks at home rallied supporters, addressed troops and generally sought to reassure Venezuelans that he is in control in spite of his illness.

Chavez said his June 20 surgery in Cuba removed a cancerous tumor the size of a baseball. He hasn't said what type of cancer he was diagnosed with nor specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his pelvic region.

Chavez acknowledged on Wednesday for the first time that he expected to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

The National Assembly had to vote on Saturday to approve Chavez's trip to Cuba, and the issue raised a passionate debate in which opposition lawmakers said they supported the president's right to receive treatment but disputed his plan to remain in charge while in Havana.

Opposition politicians said they believed Chavez's request constituted a "temporary absence" and that the president owed the country a more detailed explanation of how serious his illness is.

"Let him go to Cuba," opposition lawmaker Alfonso Marquina said during the debate. "But we also demand compliance with the constitution ... so that he doesn't continue governing from Havana."

Under Venezuela's constitution, the vice president may take the president's place during temporary absences of up to 90 days, which the National Assembly may extend for 90 days more, for a total of about six months.

Pro-Chavez lawmaker Cilia Flores said the National Assembly was simply granting Chavez permission to be away for more than five days and that he would remain in charge.

As the session was under way, Chavez appeared on television and interjected himself into the debate. He appeared on a split screen with the lawmakers' listening, dismissing his opponents' arguments as "bordering on ridiculousness."

Chavez has said he is confident he will rebound but has also acknowledged a long road to recovery remains.

The president is up for re-election in late 2012, and he told members of his party on Saturday: "We have to obtain a great victory."

[artemis]

"Chavez returns to Venezuela from Cuba after chemo

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he soldiered through his first week of chemotherapy in Cuba with only minor discomfort but that a long process of additional treatment lies ahead as he confronts cancer.

Chavez, 56, made an unannounced return to Venezuela late Saturday after spending a week in Cuba undergoing treatment. He strode away from the plane down a red carpet while troops stood at attention.

"This body of mine, of a cadet and a soldier, held up," Chavez said on television after his arrival, adding that he had "some small discomfort."

"It's a hard treatment. It finished yesterday. Today a little bit of rest and here we are," he said. Chavez said he is ready to "continue the battle."

State television broadcast footage of Chavez being greeted at the airport by Vice President Elias Jaua and other ministers.

Chavez said the chemotherapy in the past week went well but that risks remain and he expects his treatments to continue for an extended period. He did not say how long.

"It's important that the Venezuelan people don't believe that everything is done," Chavez said. "We're in a complete process of fighting very hard, and it takes its time. We're winning it and we'll win it, but it takes its time and its rhythms."

The president underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor, which he said was the size of a baseball. He hasn't said what type of cancer he has been diagnosed with or specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his pelvic region. He says chemotherapy is necessary to ensure cancer cells don't reappear.

Chavez said that a day after he arrived in Cuba on July 16, he underwent "intense studies that they call medical imaging." He said 126 images showed that "no presence of malignant cells was detected in any part of my body."

"In any case the risk exists," Chavez added. "For that reason the chemotherapy, which was given to me the whole week in various sessions."

Chavez said Friday that he had successfully completed a "first cycle" of chemotherapy and will next begin the second of various additional stages. He did not say when the next series of chemotherapy treatments would begin.

Chavez said Fidel Castro, who has been at his side throughout much of his treatment, had suggested that the Venezuelan leader closely follow his doctors' orders and be conscious that his health is still at risk.

Chavez said that "for my complete return, I should be disciplined."

During the past week in Cuba, Chavez was largely out of the public eye but kept up a steady stream of messages on his Twitter account, ranging from government announcements to cheering for the national soccer team.

While in Cuba during the past week, Chavez also received visits by Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, and Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona.

Chavez said that before leaving Havana for Caracas on Saturday, he also met with Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

Upon his arrival in Caracas on Saturday night, Chavez said: "I address the country from my heart to express my immense happiness and gladness to be in Venezuela after one week."

"Throughout this week, I haven't lost an instant in my attention to Venezuela — what happens, the problems, the solutions," he said.

The leftist president, who has been in power since 1999, has said he intends to run for re-election in late 2012 despite his illness.

"After this week of intense work in Cuba with a quality Venezuelan and Cuban medical team, I should tell you... that I've come back better than I left," he said."

[treegenus]

"...with a quality Venezuelan and Cuban medical team, I should tell you... that I've come back better than I left," he said." Ha! Ha! I'm sure he has!!

[artemis]

"Chavez turns 57 vowing to stay in power until 2031

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sang, danced and said he intends to stay in power for two more decades as he celebrated his 57th birthday looking ahead to months of cancer treatment.

Chavez rallied a crowd of cheering supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace on Thursday, waving a large Venezuelan flag and briefly wrapping himself in it. He said he expects to lose his hair soon as a result of chemotherapy and that a long process of treatment lies ahead.

"This is going to be various months all of this year, but I'm going to continue in charge of my government functions," Chavez said.

He mixed serious statements about his upcoming treatment with the ecstatic rallying cries of a leader already in pre-campaign mode ahead of the 2012 election.

"Next year, we will win the presidential elections once again! Strength, unity!" Chavez said. Setting a goal he has never before reached, he said: "We're going for 10 million votes next year!"

The crowd chanted: "Oh, no! Chavez won't go!"

Chavez sang and danced briefly with one his daughters on the balcony while a band below played folk music. He saluted to the crowd and blew kisses, standing next to three grandchildren.

His supporters sang while atop a giant birthday cake sparkling candles burned.

"I invite you all to celebrate my 77th," Chavez said. "I had said I'd leave in 2021. Well, I'm not going away in 2021 or anything. Maybe in 2031."

The leftist leader has been in office since 1999 and is seeking re-election next year to another six-year term. A poll released last week said Chavez's public approval rating remains at 50 percent and hasn't significantly varied since his cancer diagnosis.

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor. He hasn't said what type of cancer he has been diagnosed with or specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his pelvic region.

He underwent his first phase of chemotherapy in Cuba last week and said the treatment aims to ensure that no malignant cells reappear.

"Soon surely my hair will start to fall out — inevitable," Chavez said. "They will apply new doses of chemotherapy in the coming days."

When patients undergo such surgery to remove a tumor, "there's always a concern of microscopic cells, or individual cells left behind even though all of the physical tumor is removed," said Dr. Jeffrey Crawford, chief of medical oncology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

"The role of chemotherapy is to go through the body and attack any remaining cells that may have been laying dormant or hidden," said Crawford, who is not involved in the president's treatment.

Crawford said it's not possible to draw conclusions about Chavez's treatment based on the president's account that his hair will fall out because that's often the case with many chemotherapy regimes. But based on Chavez's comments, he added, "I think the best-case scenario would probably be three to four months of chemo."

Chavez said he should be finished with the most difficult phases of his treatment by December, when he hopes to host a summit of Latin American leaders in Caracas.

"At the end of the year, I should have passed this hard, careful, very, very strict phase," Chavez said in a telephone conversation aired on television Thursday morning.

He said he sent letters inviting Latin American and Caribbean leaders to the summit in Caracas on Dec. 9. That meeting had originally been scheduled for July 5-6 but was postponed due to Chavez's illness.

Around the country, the president's supporters held a series of televised events honoring his birthday. A group of children sang for him, oil workers in red hardhats wished him the best and the president's older brother, Adan, led a crowd in their home state of Barinas singing "Happy Birthday."

Chavez made his only public appearance of the day at the presidential palace. He said that for now he needs to limit his contact with the public because his white blood cell count has declined as a result of chemotherapy, lowering his natural immune defenses.

"I'd like to be down there with you all, but I shouldn't," Chavez told his audience from the balcony. "I have to take a great deal of care."

Still, he assured his supporters, "I feel that I'm being reborn. I'm starting a new life."

Turning to politics, Chavez denounced his adversaries as "los escualidos," or the squalid ones. He said some of his opponents have been "going around now with the tale that this is a show, that I don't have anything."

[artemis]

Chavez opts for close-shaved head due to chemo

news.yahoo.com/chavez-opts-close-shaved-head-due-chemo-023143164.html

[artemis]

"More "spiritual" Chavez changes outlook on life

CARACAS (Reuters) - Living with cancer has pushed Venezuela's fiery President Hugo Chavez to change his habits and diet, his governing style and even his outlook on life.

His marathon speeches have been cut back dramatically and the socialist leader is following doctors' orders for the first time. He is more philosophical and has a new, more conciliatory message for his opponents.

Frequently invoking God and the spirits of the Venezuelan plains where he was born, Chavez says he has been reborn.

"It's not that this is a different Chavez, I'm the same. But it's like a new stage of my life, more diverse, more reflexive, more open-minded" he said in one recent appearance.

Although he maintains his radical left-wing ideology, reinforced during several weeks' treatment and recovery as the guest of his friend and mentor Fidel Castro in communist-led Cuba, Chavez now says his government will try to build bridges with the middle-class and the private sector, two groups that he has long identified as enemies of his "revolution."

His opponents are wary of the "new Chavez," pointing out that he has been through something similar before.

A spirit of reconciliation after a brief coup against him in 2002 did not last long, despite him holding aloft a crucifix to pardon his foes and asking for their forgiveness in return.

They fear this new round of conciliatory gestures is little more than political theater and that before long he will be back to his old ways of ridiculing and intimidating them.

Chavez plans to run for another six-year term at an election due late next year, but opposition parties sense a chance to end the convalescing leader's 12-year rule. They see political positioning in his professed new outlook on life.

"Symbolic terrain is nothing trivial or banal for Chavez. There was a very clear electoral campaign message. For him, radicalism is no longer profitable," Teodoro Petkoff, who runs opposition newspaper Tal Cual, wrote in an editorial.

During celebrations to mark his 57th birthday a week ago, Chavez was given an out-of-character bright yellow shirt as a gift, instead of his more customary army fatigues or something in revolutionary red.

Wearing it while speaking from the balcony of his palace to the huge crowd below, he urged them to change the slogan his supporters chanted for years, "Socialist fatherland or death!" to a less ideological "We will live and we will conquer!"

"I had no political intentions. No, it was more spiritual," he said, explaining his unusual attire. "I'm beginning a new life, honestly, I tell you."

WAKES AT DAWN, QUOTES PHILOSOPHY

Chavez has lost 33 pounds (15 kg) following the cancer surgery and a first session of chemotherapy in Havana. His face is slightly swollen and he shaved his head after telling the nation more chemotherapy might leave him bald.

He has not said exactly what type of cancer he has but insists he will beat it.

The "new" Chavez gets up at dawn, does exercise, sticks to a healthy diet and -- for the first time in his life -- follows his doctors' orders with "strict military discipline."

That begins with limiting his famously long appearances and speeches. He is sending out a lot of messages on the Twitter social network site and often calls state TV, even at dawn, to show he remains fully in control. But he no longer stays on air or speaking to supporters at public events for hours on end.

Chavez often discusses the details of his rehabilitation, from the home cooking his mother brings him to the 10 daily cups of coffee he has now exchanged for six liters of water and the green tea recommended for him by "doctor" Fidel.

Although his disease has done little to soften his sometimes scathing rhetoric against his "stateless" political foes and the "decadent" U.S. empire, Chavez now spends more time dwelling on melancholy memories of his humble but happy childhood, or his life as a cadet at the military academy.

"It's my eternal return, the return of myself, the child I was, the teen-ager I was, the cadet I was, the dreamer I was," said the president, who quotes profusely from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

The challenge now, he concedes, is learning to delegate and get a handle on his desire to micro-manage every aspect of his government. Chavez says he wants more time to read, take walks with relatives and return to painting, a childhood hobby.

Few dare predict how long this reflective phase will last given the uncertainties about his illness, Chavez's fickle nature and Venezuela's hectic politics, which in just over a decade have produced a failed coup, a crippling oil sector strike, more than 10 elections and four referendums.

Although it is unlikely that cancer will substantially put the brakes on his drive for further socialist reforms, Chavez could look to soften the more aggressive side of his character. which polls show is disliked by most Venezuelans.

"Brothers and sisters, Venezuelans, I love you all, regardless of your social status, skin color, age, sex or religious beliefs. I love you!" he said last week during a unusual phone call to a group of private entrepreneurs."

[artemis]

OK, time for some pic comparison of C/FHAVEZ. Weird and ridiculous again coz there are scarcely few pics of him as a child and teenage/young. I admit sometimes it is very hard to tell if he was replaced or not...

The 3rd boy in the middle its him. sh*tty pic, I know...


1984


1992






1999


2000


2002




2003




2006






2007


2008


2009




2010


2011


Profile comps






(2007)






(2007)




(2004)



Various




















(Before and) After "chemo"

[artemis]

"Chavez to nationalize Venezuelan gold industry

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will nationalize its gold industry and is moving its international reserves out of Western countries, President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday in a combative step ahead of his re-election bid next year.

The moves will make the finances of South America's biggest oil exporter even murkier as the 57-year-old socialist leader gears up for an election battle that was already looking close even before he was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Chavez has put large parts of Venezuela's economy under state control and is now targeting the gold industry after his government quarreled with foreign companies who complained that limits on how much gold they could export hurt their efforts to secure financing and develop projects.

Chavez seems to have lost patience and decided to put the whole industry into state hands.

"We're going to nationalize the gold and we're going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves because gold continues to increase in value," the authoritarian but charismatic president said in a phone call to state TV.

"I'm going to approve a law to begin taking the gold areas, and there I count on (the military) because there continues to be anarchy, mafias, smuggling."

Toronto-listed Rusoro, owned by Russia's Agapov family, is the only large gold miner operating in Venezuela. It produced about 100,000 ounces of gold in Venezuela last year.

The nationalization of the gold industry fits with Chavez's broader plan to repatriate his country's bullion and shift most of its cash reserves out of Western nations to political allies including China, Russia and Brazil.

"It is a question of prudence and protection," Finance Minister Jorge Giordani said on Wednesday.

A Venezuelan official at regional body Unasur said the group was considering a similar move to repatriate part of the estimated $500 billion its members have in reserves abroad.

"It's a legitimate act, a sovereign act, unquestionable and indeed necessary," Ali Rodriguez told Venezuelan state TV.

Chavez, who has undergone two sessions of chemotherapy in Cuba since he announced in June that he had cancer, often rails against the reliance on the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency of choice.

The move is in line with Chavez's ideological world view: during his 12 years in power he has often bashed the United States and sought to align Venezuela with emerging powers and opponents of Washington such as Iran.

WORRIED ABOUT SANCTIONS?

Giordani said the transfers were under way, and that mounting debt worries in Europe and the United States showed that Venezuela needed to diversify where it kept its reserves.

Transferring funds to China for safe-keeping would appeal particularly to Beijing, which has invested billions of dollars in Venezuela's nationalized oil industry.

Some critics have suggested Chavez might be worried about the possibility of sanctions against his government if there is violence in next year's election campaign, and so is trying to ensure state reserves are stored more safely.

The former soldier appeared to allude to the possibility of reserves being seized by foreign powers.

"Look what's happening in the Arab world with the use of international reserves ... (there is) practically a confiscation of those resources, which is something we have to prevent at any cost, linking our economies to the BRIC nations and South Africa," Chavez said on Wednesday when he called into a news conference by his finance minister.

Venezuela has international reserves of $29.1 billion. About 63 percent of that is in gold worth $11 billion held overseas and $7 billion at home, the government says.

One way it could boost its bullion reserves was to nationalize the gold industry, which had largely stagnated. Production at the state-run gold miner plummeted last year and the company appealed for a $70 million government bailout.

Venezuela has been relatively small in the gold world, with formal mining producing about 6 tonnes a year. But it boasts some of Latin America's biggest gold deposits, buried below the jungles south of the Orinoco river.

Chavez agreed last year to let gold miners export up to 50 percent of production, up from 30 percent previously. The other 50 percent must be sold to the central bank.

But that did not satisfy foreign companies like Rusoro, which said the limits made it much harder for them to get financing abroad, develop projects and create jobs.

One victim of the dispute has been a huge but long-troubled project called Las Cristinas. It has been in limbo since the government canceled a development license with another Canadian miner, Crystallex, in February.

Rusoro had expressed interest in Las Cristinas, which has not been developed since the 1980s but has reserves estimated at 17 million ounces. Locals once found a 1-kilo (2.2-lb) nugget there. But Rusoro's chief executive told Reuters in June it could not take on the project unless the government scrapped its export rules."

[artemis]

C/FHAVEZ as seen last Sunday

[artemis]

One more round of chemo, another replacement?

"Venezuela's Chavez expects 1 more round of chemo

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he expects to undergo one more round of chemotherapy and that it should be the last phase in his cancer treatment.

Chavez says he will probably begin a fourth round in the coming days. He says he will then undergo tests to verify that no malignant cells have reappeared.

Chavez underwent an operation in June that removed a tumor from his pelvic region.

The president said in a telephone call on state television Tuesday morning that after the next round of chemotherapy, he expects to transition to a new recovery phase that will include more exercise.

Chavez noted that he plans to host a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Venezuela on Dec. 2.

As spotted last week

[artemis]

"Ill Chavez upbeat as Venezuela campaign opens

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's 2012 presidential election campaign was unofficially underway on Wednesday, with President Hugo Chavez and his foes rallying supporters and predicting victory in the South American OPEC member.

Authorities set the vote for October 7, 2012 -- day of the patron saint of Chavez's birthplace Sabaneta and also the birthday of a leading opposition leader -- meaning Venezuelans are in for more than a year of noisy politicking.

"I give the order to prepare for the battle and the great victory on October 7," Chavez said, after again reassuring supporters he would soon recover from his cancer treatment.

"I'm going to give a little surprise to those who think I'm close to the tomb," the 57-year-old socialist leader added in a string of buoyant calls to state media.

Chavez's cancer diagnosis and ongoing chemotherapy have given him a small sympathy bounce in opinion polls, where his approval remains above 50 percent.

Yet ill health has also hurt his aura of invincibility.

The voluble Chavez has led Venezuela since 1999, remolding the economy along statist lines and turning himself into one of the world's most vocal U.S. critics. But he faces an opposition movement more united than ever and set to rally around a unity candidate after a primary election in February.

Analysts say that while Chavez has vastly more resources to sway voters, it is an open race given how divided the nation is and the uncertainty surrounding his health.

The president is due to start a fourth session of chemotherapy in coming days, which he said on Wednesday was purely preventive to stop any spread of malignant cells.

He said the fourth chemotherapy round should be the last, but few details are known about his precise condition after surgery in Cuba to remove a tumor in the pelvic area.

"LET THE GAMES BEGIN"

Though minimizing public appearances and following a stricter personal routine on doctor's orders, Chavez has remained ubiquitous via calls to media and Twitter messages.

That has analysts predicting a "virtual" campaign rather than his usual grueling criss-crossing of the nation.

An October election date, earlier than Venezuela's traditional December timing for presidential votes, gives Chavez less time to recover but also means a shorter campaign that would be less demanding on his health.

"I think Chavez would win anyway, despite his health, but definitely the change in date helps him, because he's taking advantage of the show over his health," said university professor Marietta Garcia, 34.

After its internal vote for a February primary, the opposition Democratic Unity movement will have two months less than expected for campaigning, but that might not be a bad thing given its inferior finances.

If the opposition is to unseat Chavez, who has held them off with relative ease during most of the numerous national votes since he came to power, its leaders must remain united.

Analysts say the opposition must also make a mammoth effort to woo Venezuelans, particularly in poor urban and remote rural areas that are Chavez strongholds, and it has to project policies that go further than just opposing him.

Opposition supporters trust that Venezuelans' increasing frustration with failing services like electricity, untamed inflation, and crime levels on par with war zones, will outweigh Chavez's advantages including the sympathy factor.

"Chavez's downward tendency will continue when daily realities displace the vicissitudes of the president's health among citizens' worries," pro-opposition newspaper editor Teodoro Petkoff said. "Everything points toward victory."

Chavez, though, retains fanatical support among many of Venezuela's poor majority and has a big war-chest to spend thanks to the high price of oil. Already, he has launched a massive house-building campaign to try and address one of Venezuelans' biggest complaints in time for the election.

Markets will watch every twist and turn in the campaign.

"Next year's presidential election is Venezuela's most important non-oil credit driver," Nomura bank said in a report titled "Let the games begin."

"The possibility of a democratic transition of power could reverse ongoing credit deterioration."

The favorite to win the opposition's primary is Henrique Capriles Radonski, the 39-year-old governor of Miranda state whose political model is former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's mix of social justice and market economics.

"I'm ready to give peace to the nation," he said.

[artemis]

Again?

"Hugo Chavez travels to Cuba for medical tests

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez returned to Cuba on Sunday to undergo a series of medical tests to evaluate his cancer treatment.

The president, who finished what he described as his fourth and final round of chemotherapy in Cuba last month, said he will be undergoing what he described as "rigorous examinations."

"I have faith that we'll get through these tests," said Chavez, speaking at Simon Bolivar International Airport before boarding a plane for Cuba.

Chavez, 57, underwent surgery in Cuba in June to remove a tumor from his pelvic region. He has not revealed what type of cancer he is battling, but he has said that tests have shown no signs of a recurrence.

The self-described revolutionary said he expects to return to Venezuela with a few days with "good news."

He did not elaborate.

Chavez, a former paratroop commander who was first elected in 1998, has repeatedly vowed to beat cancer, fully regain his health and sail to a victory in next year's presidential election.

He recently announced that doctors predict his hair will soon grow back, and even joked about growing an afro before he begins campaigning for next year's Oct. 7 vote.

Many Venezuelans, particularly the president's critics, are skeptical of his assurances that he's recovering. Some suspect that Chavez has not revealed all the details regarding his illness, concealing them like a confidential state secret, because he's in grave condition.

"The president must understand the country cannot continue with this uncertainty regarding his illness," said Gustavo Azocar, an opposition politician and radio talk show host who believes Chavez is unfit to continue governing. "He has attempted to hide the true circumstances of his health."

Azocar argues Chavez should step down.

"The president is not in physical condition to continue as president," Azocar said. "He should focus on his medical treatment and follow the instructions of his doctors."

[artemis]

"Venezuela's Chavez declares himself free of cancer

LA FRIA, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez declared himself cancer-free on Thursday, four months after surgery to remove a cancerous tumor that shook the South American nation ahead of a 2012 presidential vote.

"I am free of illness," Chavez, 57, said in an address to Venezuelans after touching down from Cuba in a western state where he was making a pilgrimage to a Catholic shrine.

Despite the ebullient socialist's declarations, most experts say it is impossible for a cancer patient to be considered out of danger until at least two years after treatment has finished.

Dressed in a green military uniform and speaking confidently, Chavez said the tests he underwent in Cuba this week had shown there were no malignant cells in his body following four cycles of chemotherapy after the June 20 operation in Havana.

"A vital stage has concluded. Everything went perfectly. I got top marks, 20 out of 20," he said. "The new Chavez is back ... We will live and we will continue living."

Since coming to power in 1999, Chavez has transformed Venezuela with sweeping nationalizations, huge injections of cash into social projects in the slums, an authoritarian and one-man style of leadership, and constant jibes at Washington.

Adored by supporters, he is viewed as a clownish but dangerous dictator by foes who say Chavez wants to install an unwanted Cuban-style communism in Venezuela.

Chavez has not given precise details of his cancer, but the surgery was in his abdomen region. There has been intense speculation his condition is worse than he has let on.

ELECTION LOOMS

Touching down at La Fria airport, Chavez hugged a group of smiling ministers and warmly greeted supporters, singing with some and slapping the backs of others.

After a speech carried on all Venezuelan TV and radio stations, he set off driving through the hills to the Christ of La Grita shrine where Chavez said he had to fulfill a vow.

"I am more and more Christian. Socialism is the way of Christ. Love, social justice, that is Christ," said Chavez, who has mixed communism, Catholicism and veneration of Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar during a remarkable rule.

Exuding confidence, Chavez pledged to win next year's election when he will face an opposition coalition candidate to be chosen at a February primary.

Chavez has benefited from a sympathy bounce in polls, taking him to an approval rating near 60 percent. But analysts say that may fall if his health deteriorates again and he is seen as unfit to run a re-election campaign or rule for another six years.

"It will be easier for a donkey to pass through the eye of a needle than for the opposition to win the elections," Chavez said in an idiosyncratic use of a saying in the Bible.

Famous for swilling coffee, sleeping just a few hours and exhausting aides with his round-the-clock, high-energy style, Chavez said it was time to tone down his lifestyle.

"I have decided, and it is necessary, to change radically my habits to preserve my health and accompany you in the new fatherland."

[artemis]

"Doctor who spoke of Chavez's cancer leaves Venezuela

CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan doctor who forecast President Hugo Chavez would die of cancer within two years said on Friday he had left the country with his family after colleagues reported police visiting his consultancy.

Salvador Navarrete, who attended Chavez a decade ago and is in touch with some relatives and members of his medical team, caused uproar in Venezuela with comments last weekend that the president had a serious cancer -- sarcoma -- in the pelvis.

Chavez allies accused him of "morbid" motives and "necrophilia". Then his version was directly contradicted by Chavez, who returned from tests in Cuba on Thursday declaring he was free of malignant cells.

Medical personnel say police visited Navarrete's office earlier this week at Caracas's Avila Clinic, checking files and computers, while the doctor was not present.

In an open letter published by local media, Navarrete said he wanted to "show his face" and have a public discussion about Chavez's health but had felt obliged to leave to an undisclosed location given the furor.

"Events forced me to leave the country abruptly, something I neither wanted nor had planned to do," Navarrete wrote.

Chavez's health is the all-consuming issue for the South American OPEC member nation of 29 million people one year ahead of a presidential election where he wants to be re-elected.

In his letter, Navarrete said the interview with Mexico's Milenio Semanal magazine was intended to combat official secrecy over Chavez's condition.

"I'm worried that the president and those around him do not know the full magnitude of his illness given it has been handled with complete secrecy," he said.

"The consequences of a fatal outcome, and the importance of informing both those who support him and those who oppose him, were the reasons that led me to tackle this delicate subject."

The flamboyant socialist leader's assurance he is fit and ready to begin his election campaign has met with skepticism from doctors, who say no cancer patient can be considered free from danger until at least two years after treatment.

Analysts, too, have seen an element of classic Chavez political theater in his fanfare homecoming from medical tests in Cuba followed by an open-top caravan to a regional Catholic shrine where he prayed and gave thanks for his recovery.

Supporters, though, are thrilled at the return of their "Comandante", who declared his improvement was a "miracle."

Navarrete ratified his original prognosis of Chavez.

"His physical disappearance right now could be more traumatic than politicians realize," he added in the letter."