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Post by artemis on Jan 18, 2013 16:44:37 GMT -5
"Venezuela's Chavez reportedly convalescing in secrecy at Cuba hospital famed for security
HAVANA - It's a blocky, blush-colored building surrounded by a lush canopy of trees near the rumoured home of Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.
Somewhere inside, as best as can be determined, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life.
People in Venezuela and other parts of the world await word on the fate of a man who once called George W. Bush "the devil" in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, yet there are no journalists camped out on the sidewalk. Nobody gets past a police guard without proof of official business inside. Signs on surrounding streets warn that taking photographs is forbidden.
CIMEQ hospital's well-earned reputation for guaranteeing the privacy of its elite clientele makes it the perfect place for the Venezuelan leader, who is bent on maintaining a large degree of secrecy about his battle against a cancer somewhere in the pelvic region. Venezuelan government officials have released few details on the cancer since it was first discovered in June 2011, and they've been no more forthcoming during his latest stay for a fourth surgery, on Dec. 11.
"What Chavez gets there (at CIMEQ) is a lot of privacy," said Sergio Diaz-Briquets, a Virginia-based analyst and the author of "The Health Revolution in Cuba." ''They have been pretty good at protecting the private affairs of the leaders of the Cuban revolution, and now we see they're doing the same with Chavez."
CIMEQ, a Spanish-language acronym for Center for Medical and Surgical Research, is operated jointly by Cuban civilian and military authorities and is considered the crown jewel of the island's health care system. Opened in 1982 in western Havana, it was the first to use CAT scan technology in Cuba, and is reputedly at the vanguard of marrow, liver and kidney transplants.
Communist-run Cuba is legendary for being able to keep a secret, and CIMEQ sits in an upscale Havana neighbourhood where security is especially tight. The area crawls with police and guards even on a normal day, and high walls shield pre-revolution mansions that today house embassies, diplomats, visiting dignitaries and top officials. Just up the road is a convention centre where Colombia and its largest rebel group are holding supersensitive peace talks behind closed doors.
CIMEQ serves ordinary Cubans for free under the island's public health system, but it's renowned as the go-to place for A-listers, from famed 91-year-old ballerina Alicia Alonso to the late boxing great Teofilo Stevenson. High-profile visitors such as Presidents Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Evo Morales of Bolivia have also availed themselves of CIMEQ's services.
Those who manage to get past the front gate walk past a parking lot, under an imposing overhang and through an ample front door to find leatherette-seated waiting areas and broad, labyrinthine corridors.
Even here there's practically no visual clue suggesting the presence of Chavez. A half-dozen CIMEQ patients consulted by The Associated Press said security seems normal and there's no sign of the Cuban secret service agents in guayabera shirts who guard President Raul Castro and famous visitors. However, on one recent day, several cars in the parking lot bore black diplomatic license plates identifying them as belonging to the Venezuelan Embassy.
"They've been saying for a while that Chavez is here, ever since he fell ill," said Barbara Ramirez, a 62-year-old Havana resident. "But I've been coming here for treatment for a long time and I don't see anything."
Chavez is believed to be housed in an entirely separate ward that is off-limits to all but a few — his doctors, family members and the highest-level officials. It is here that Chavez's friend and mentor, Fidel Castro, 86, was presumably treated for an intestinal ailment that nearly killed him and forced him into retirement seven years ago. As has been the case with Chavez, details of Castro's illness were closely guarded leaving rumour and speculation to rule the day.
It's a far cry from the scene outside hospitals in other places where the rich and famous undergo treatment.
Think of Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, favoured by Hollywood celebrities, where packs of paparazzi stalk the entrance snapping photos of movie stars who've given birth or survived an overdose.
Or the British royal family, which last year couldn't guarantee the privacy of the Duchess of Cambridge, still better known as Kate Middleton, when she was hospitalized for pregnancy complications. An Australian radio DJ duo called the hospital and, mimicking Queen Elizabeth II's warbling speech, pranked a nurse into revealing private details of her condition. A second nurse who patched the call through later died in an apparent suicide.
Chavez has not been seen or heard from since his operation, although his family members, Venezuelan officials and other Latin American leaders have visited the island to support him.
Cuban government officials have repeatedly declined to offer any information about Chavez's condition, saying they consider it a matter exclusively for the Venezuelans to handle as they see fit. Venezuelan Embassy employees say privately they are told nothing about the president's health other than the vague official statements released by Chavez's camp, not even to confirm where he's staying.
Chavez is no doubt grateful for the discretion, and by some accounts has responded generously.
A commonly repeated story is that after his first surgery 1 1/2 years ago, Chavez gave new cars to everyone responsible for his care, from the surgeons down to a maid who cleaned the room. The rumours were never confirmed, but the purported gifts are said to have inspired jealousy and infighting among hospital staff.
Some have questioned Chavez's decision to opt for Cuba instead of the cancer centre at Sao Paulo's Sirio-Libanes hospital, considered the top facility of its kind in Latin America. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff invited Chavez to seek treatment there when he was first diagnosed.
But in choosing Cuba, the Venezuelan leader got a guarantee of privacy while handing a public relations victory to communist leaders who tout health care achievements among the Cuban Revolution's great successes.
"There was a political message, too: the complete trust that Chavez put in Cuba and its public medical system," said Eduardo Bueno, a Latin American studies professor at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City."
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Post by artemis on Jan 26, 2013 5:56:13 GMT -5
"Venezuela VP: ailing Chavez in 'best moment'
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's condition has improved and he is now optimistic as he faces more treatment following cancer surgery, his vice president said Saturday.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro said after meeting with Chavez in Cuba that the ailing president is now "in the best moment we've seen him in these days of struggle" following his Dec. 11 cancer surgery. Chavez hasn't been seen or spoken publicly since before the operation, and his government has said he suffered complications including a severe respiratory infection but has recently been getting better.
Maduro spoke on state television early Saturday after returning from Havana to Venezuela. He said he was leaving shortly for a summit meeting in Chile and was taking a written message from Chavez.
Maduro said Chavez also sent messages for Venezuelans, including that he said he was "very optimistic in what we're doing." Maduro said that referred to the president's treatment and that Chavez is "hanging on to Christ and to life."
The vice president, whom Chavez designated as his successor before the operation, spoke on television surrounded by officials including Defense Minister Diego Molero and Information Minister Ernesto Villegas. Maduro said that Villegas would give a more detailed update on Chavez's health later Saturday.
Chavez has undergone repeated surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer. He has undergone much of his treatment in Cuba.
The 58-year-old president won re-election in October, and lawmakers indefinitely put off his inauguration earlier this month in a decision that was condemned by opponents but upheld by the Supreme Court.
Maduro said that Chavez sent several messages for his supporters in Venezuela, including urging them to be alert about opponents seeking to do harm. He did not elaborate.
The vice president said that Chavez had reviewed reports about various matters and had made decisions. He also said that Chavez had signed documents, and the vice president showed the signature in red ink.
He said one of the documents signed by Chavez related to the selection of his socialist party's candidates for mayoral elections later this year."
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Post by artemis on Feb 6, 2013 6:47:35 GMT -5
" ‘Chavez clearly recovering from surgery’
The National Assembly Speaker says Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has made significant progress and is “clearly recovering” from cancer surgery.
On Sunday, Diosdado Cabello, returning from a visit to the president in a Cuban hospital in the capital city Havana, said Chavez's health status showed clear signs of improvement.
"The health of Comandante Chavez is clearly recovering," said Cabello. "He continues to make consistent but gradual progress."
Venezuelans and people in other Latin American countries over the past eight weeks have held frequent prayer meetings for the return of the socialist leader. Reporters say support for Chavez among Venezuelans has increased.
Cabello reassured the supporters with a message spoken on the president’s behalf, “He [Chavez] sent a hug to all the Venezuelan people and appreciation for so much love, for so much affection.”
Attendant at one of the many prayer meetings, Venezuela's Defense Minister Diego Molero said the president is experiencing “his best moment” following cancer-related surgery in early December.
Chavez, recovering from a fourth round of cancer surgery, has yet to appear in public since his last operation on December 11.
He appointed Vice President Nicolas Maduro to lead the government while he was absent.
Maduro read out a letter that Chavez wrote to the Community of Caribbean and Latin American nations (CELAC) at the Tuesday summit in Chile’s capital city Santiago.
In the letter, the Venezuelan leader said CELAC needs to expand its abilities to increase the 33-member state bloc’s economic strength and he criticized schemes of the “First World” that he said resorted to cutting “social and public spending” as the “only answer” to economic downturn."
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Post by artemis on Feb 10, 2013 16:04:15 GMT -5
"After 2 months absent, still no sign of Chavez
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Two months have passed since Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez climbed the stairs of the presidential jet, blew kisses to his supporters and flew to Cuba to undergo his fourth cancer-related surgery.
Chavez hasn't been seen or spoken publicly since that departure to Havana on Dec. 10, and the mystery surrounding his condition has deepened while the government's updates have remained optimistic but have lately offered few specifics.
"The president is in charge and making decisions," Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Saturday after meeting with Brazil's foreign minister. "It's a slow, slow recovery process. But he is fighting his battle with great faith, and clinging to Christ and clinging to life ... and with the conviction that he is going to win this battle, too."
Jaua, who visited Chavez in Cuba last week, said the 58-year-old president has been making political and economic decisions. On Friday, for instance, the government announced it is devaluing the currency.
Confidants including Jaua have recently said the president has overcome complications including a severe respiratory infection following his Dec. 11 surgery for recurrent cancer in his pelvic region.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, whom Chavez named as his potential successor before the surgery, has said that the president should be able to return home once his condition permits it.
When that might be remains unclear, and the long silence of a leader who used to speak on television almost every day has led many Venezuelans to wonder why he is unable to say at least a few words to the country by phone.
Some analysts say they expect that sooner or later, Chavez's delicate health could make necessary a new election to replace him.
"The transition has already begun in Venezuela, and the election campaign has also begun," said Tulio Hernandez, a sociologist and professor at the Central University of Venezuela. "The transition has also begun in people's heads. Sometimes, there are mistakes among government spokespeople, who start to speak of Chavez in the past tense."
Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello have recently led street demonstrations where supporters have rallied around the president chanting his name and holding photos of him.
If Chavez were to die or step down from the presidency, a new presidential vote would be called within 30 days.
The long silence has left many Venezuelans, including both supporters and detractors of the president, on edge amid rumors and speculation.
"Whether we wanted to or not, it used to be inevitable to hear him, see him, talk about him," said Emilia Torres, a university student who supports the opposition. "Now he's disappeared. We haven't seen him in a long time. We don't even know if he's really OK or not."
Chavez has undergone several cancer treatments in Cuba since June 2011, including surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. He hasn't revealed the type of cancer or the exact location where tumors have been removed from his pelvic region.
During previous stints in Cuba, Chavez regularly kept in contact through phone calls broadcast on television and messages on Twitter. Now, those messages have been replaced by updates given by his Cabinet ministers.
The updates recently have been given less frequently, while government officials say Chavez's condition has slowly improved.
"I want them to tell us the truth. I don't want to keep seeing ministers saying that El Comandante sends us regards," said Lenin Colmenares, a street vendor who sells posters and photos with images of Chavez. "I hope El Comandante himself will be the one to say it. Why doesn't he?"
Colmenares said he hopes the president will be able to return. He also said none of the other officials in his socialist movement can compare to the charismatic leader.
"I'm for the revolutionary process, but if I support another one (within Chavez's movement) it's only because El Comandante asked for it," Colmenares said. "That man is unique."
Chavez, who counts 19th century independence leader Simon Bolivar and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro among his leading influences, first took office in 1999 and was re-elected to a new six-year term in October. Throughout his presidency, he has cultivated an image as the sole leader of his Bolivarian Revolution movement.
Now, he has turned to Maduro and others to carry on in his absence.
"We're obviously at a crossroads," said Oscar Valles, a political analyst and professor at the Metropolitan University in Caracas. He said that during the past two months, "it's been hard for the predominant circle within Chavismo to articulate leadership that can begin to replace that of the president in this difficult transition."
There have been previous cases of leaders in other countries vanishing from public view for long stretches due to health problems.
Fidel Castro, for one, has appeared in public only occasionally since he fell ill in 2006 and formally stepped aside from the presidency less than two years later.
In Nigeria, President Umaru Yar'Adua left the country for medical treatment in 2009 and died months later.
Venezuelan lawmakers voted last month to indefinitely postpone Chavez's Jan. 10 inauguration. The opposition argued that was unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court sided with the government and ruled that the president could be sworn in before the court at a later date.
"I don't think I'm exaggerating in saying that what's happening in Venezuela is historically unheard of," Valles said in a telephone interview. "We've never before seen a political process where a term is indefinitely extended."
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Post by artemis on Feb 14, 2013 6:29:01 GMT -5
"VP: Chavez getting 'complex and tough' treatments
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is undergoing "extremely complex and tough" treatments following cancer surgery, his vice president said Wednesday.
It was the first time that the government described Chavez's latest treatment following his surgery in those terms. The government has not given details about what sort of treatments Chavez is now undergoing in Havana, more than two months after his fourth cancer-related surgery on Dec. 11.
"You all know that we've gone through extremely complex moments in December, you remember, in January. Later, the whole post-operative cycle concluded. And today our commander is receiving complementary treatments, as we have said, extremely complex and tough treatments," Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television, without giving details.
"He is carrying out, let's say, assimilating as he would say, in the spirit of battle, but they're complex treatments... that should at some point begin to close the cycle of treatment of his illness," Maduro said. "We have passed along to him all the strength ... and all the love of the Venezuelan people."
Maduro spoke after returning on Wednesday from a trip to Cuba, where Chavez continues to receive medical care. Maduro said he had met with the president's doctors and relatives. He said that the president's elder brother, Adan, had also returned from Cuba to Venezuela on Wednesday.
Chavez hasn't been seen or spoken publicly since Dec. 10, when he traveled to Havana for the operation. Venezuelans on both sides of the country's political divide have been speculating about the socialist leader's condition amid vague reports about his health, and Maduro's latest remarks seemed likely to feed more speculation.
In other recent updates, government officials have expressed hope of Chavez returning home. In his latest comments, Maduro didn't mention that. Bolivian President Evo Morales had said on Jan. 22 that Chavez was "receiving physical therapy" so that he could return home to Venezuela. Morales also said at the time that he hoped to see his friend and ally attending "international events" soon.
Venezuelan Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Jan. 26 that during the surgery a "malignant lesion" was removed from Chavez's pelvis and that his recovery has been favorable. Villegas also said that Chavez had begun "systemic medical treatment for the fundamental illness."
Medical experts consulted by The Associated Press have said the government's account of "systemic medical treatment" could mean various types of chemotherapy or drug treatments, depending on the type of cancer.
Chavez has had tumors repeatedly removed from his pelvic region, and has also undergone prior rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The 58-year-old president hasn't revealed the type of the cancer or the precise location of the tumors removed."
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Post by artemis on Feb 15, 2013 15:32:40 GMT -5
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Post by artemis on Feb 17, 2013 6:22:00 GMT -5
"Photos of ailing Chavez stir emotions in Venezuela
CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez's supporters joyfully brandished first photographs of him since cancer surgery two months ago while opposition activists said the images were worrying evidence of Venezuela's political vacuum.
In a first proof of life since his six-hour operation in Cuba on December 11, authorities published four photos on Friday showing Chavez lying in a hospital bed smiling next to his daughters.
Underlining the gravity of his situation, however, an accompanying statement said the 58-year-old socialist leader was breathing through a tracheal tube and struggling to speak.
Within hours, the photos were on sale in Caracas streets, where some of Chavez's passionate supporters clutched them to their hearts as if they were a religious icon.
"It doesn't matter that he can't talk. We understood his message," said Aniluz Serrano, 57, selling prints in colonial Bolivar Square, named for Venezuela's independence hero and Chavez's idol, Simon Bolivar.
"When I saw this photo, I thought how beautiful, here he is calling on the people to keep fighting. When I see this smile, I can see Christ, I can see Simon Bolivar."
The photos and new medical details confirmed what most Venezuelans already assumed - that Chavez is seriously ill and may not be able to return to the presidency.
He has ruled the South American OPEC nation since 1999, maintaining huge popularity among the poor thanks to oil-financed welfare policies and his common touch, while alienating private business with nationalizations and taking an authoritarian line on opponents.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro and other allies say Chavez remains the head of state, signing decrees and giving instructions - sometimes in writing - from Havana.
"President Chavez in full recovery," was the headline of various state media. "He's alive ... he will be back," said Idan Sotto, 24, buying one of the photos in downtown Caracas.
PICKING OVER THE PHOTOS
Opposition politicians believe such optimism is misplaced, given Chavez's obvious frailty, and are renewing demands for more detailed information on his condition and ability to rule.
Should he be formally declared unable to govern, an election would be called within 30 days, probably pitting Maduro against opposition leader and state governor Henrique Capriles.
Capriles lost an October presidential election, and the opposition coalition is struggling to remain united, with some pushing for a more militant approach to Chavez's absence.
"Venezuelan sovereignty is being given away to the Cuban government," one of the most strident opposition leaders, Maria Corina Machado, told Reuters in reaction to the photos.
"It is obvious the photos were to make the world believe Hugo Chavez is in charge of government but what they've done is precisely the opposite ... I'd like to ask a question to any democratic citizen in the world: could you imagine a situation in which you have 69 days with no word from your president?"
As well as predictable political bickering, the photos spawned a plethora of online scrutiny and theories.
Some hunted for evidence of image editing. Others simply mocked the photos as the typical recourse of an autocratic and secretive government trying to spin a dire situation.
"It's hard to see why reading the dreadfully boring Granma would generate smiles," said columnist Andres Canizalez, in an opposition newspaper, referring to the Cuban Communist Party's daily newspaper that Chavez is clutching in the photos.
About 20 students protested for a third day in front of the Cuban Embassy in Caracas, standing in chains and holding copies of the constitution as police stood on guard.
"What certainty do we have with these photos? We need an independent medical board to go to Havana. It's our right as Venezuelans to know what's happening," said one protester Alexa Hauber, 25.
Many Venezuelans commented on the irony of the loss of Chavez's voice given his famously garrulous and bombastic rhetoric - from a thundering denunciation of then-U.S. President George W. Bush as the "devil" at the United Nations, to hours-long, meandering speeches that have been a staple of political life at home.
Though it is impossible to predict what the next few months may hold for Venezuela, all sides agree Chavez will leave a lasting imprint on the country.
"Chavismo will probably last generations. It will not die," Goldman Sachs analyst Alberto Ramos said, seeing a parallel with 1950s populist Argentine leader Juan Peron whose memory and ideology remain highly influential.
"The death of Peron was not the death of Peronism in Argentina."
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Post by artemis on Feb 18, 2013 8:35:54 GMT -5
"Venezuela's Chavez in surprise return from Cuba
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a surprise return from Cuba on Monday more than two months after surgery for cancer that has jeopardized his 14-year rule of the South American OPEC member.
The 58-year-old socialist leader's homecoming will fuel supporters' hopes he could return to active rule but there was no new information on his medical state and Chavez might be simply hoping to smooth a transition.
After a six-hour operation in Cuba on December 11, Chavez had not been seen or heard in public until photos were published of him on Friday.
"We have arrived back in the Venezuelan fatherland. Thanks, my God! Thanks, my beloved people! Here we will continue the treatment," Chavez said via Twitter after flying in.
There had been speculation Chavez was not well enough to travel despite wanting to return for continued treatment for the disease he was first diagnosed with in mid-2011.
But Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Chavez flew in at about 2:30 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) from Havana and was in a military hospital in Caracas, where a crowd was gathering.
"I remain attached to Christ and trusting in my nurses and doctors," Chavez also tweeted. "Onwards to victory forever! We will live and we will conquer!"
He added his thanks to Cuban leaders Raul and Fidel Castro for his treatment there.
Chavez's arrival thrilled supporters in the nation of 29 million people, where his common touch and welfare policies have made him an idol to the poor.
"It's fabulous news, the best thing possible," Chavez's cousin, Guillermo Frias, told Reuters from the president's rural birthplace in Barinas state. "Venezuela was waiting for him, everyone wants to see him. Welcome home! Thank God he's back!"
Fireworks could be heard going off in some Caracas neighborhoods as news spread and celebrations began among "Chavistas."
Government ministers were jubilant with one singing "He's back, he's back!" live on state TV. They asked Chavez's euphoric supporters to respect the peace of patients at the military hospital.
Chavez's arrival implied some improvement in his condition, at least enough to handle a flight of several hours.
But aides have emphasized in recent days his state remains delicate. "It's a complex, difficult situation, but Chavez is battling and fighting for his life," Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said during the weekend as he described a recent visit to Chavez.
The December operation in Havana was his fourth for the cancer first detected in his pelvic area in June 2011.
On Friday, the government published photos showing Chavez lying in a hospital. Officials said he was breathing through a tracheal tube and struggling to speak.
Chavez's pre-dawn return was a typical surprise move for the former soldier whose rule has combined constant political theatrics with thundering anti-U.S. rhetoric, tough treatment of opponents and lavish spending of oil revenues on the poor.
Opponents have been decrying government secrecy over Chavez's condition, and some have called for a formal declaration that he is unfit to rule. That would trigger a new presidential election within 30 days, probably between Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver, is Chavez's preferred successor and would be favorite to win a close vote in such a scenario.
"Uncertainty over a possible presidential election remains intact, despite the president's return," Venezuelan political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said.
After winning re-election in October last year, and wrongly declaring himself cured, Chavez was unable to attend his own swearing-in ceremony in January. To the fury of his foes, Venezuela's Supreme Court ruled that he remained president and could be sworn in later.
That could now happen at the military hospital.
"Now the president is back, there can be no doubt about the democratic institutions working in Venezuela," Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said.
"There were some who dream of unseating Chavez and the revolution, but here we always said Chavez is the president elected and re-elected by will of the Venezuelan people."
Chavez's return will eclipse national debate over a recent devaluation of the local currency. It has proved highly popular among Venezuelans but opposition parties see it as evidence of economic incompetence by the government.
Unlike previous returns to Venezuela after treatment, state media showed no images of Chavez this time.
His lengthy absence in Cuba had fuelled a long-held opposition accusation that Venezuela's government was being manipulated and directed from Havana. Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro is a political mentor and father figure to Chavez and Castro visited him regularly in the hospital.
Some 20 Venezuelan students have spent the past four days chained up close to the Cuban Embassy in Caracas in protest of what they see as interference from Havana in internal affairs.
Capriles welcomed Chavez back but pointedly said he hoped it would mean a return to order in government and attention to Venezuelans' daily problems."
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Post by artemis on Feb 20, 2013 15:36:19 GMT -5
"Is Chávez Really in Venezuela?
Leave it to Hugo Chávez to keep his compatriots guessing. For nearly 14 years, the Venezuelan president has kept this nation of 29 million on its toes, tearing across the country, staging marathon impromptu speeches, or descending unannounced, deus ex maquina, from a helicopter into dazed crowds.
Since he took office in 1999, barely a day has gone by without some red-shirted pageant in a public square or another burst of Bolivarian bombast from the man who always styled himself as Latin American enchanter-in-chief. So when Venezuela’s presidential airliner touched down in Caracas in the predawn hours Monday, reportedly carrying the ailing leader from a long hospital stay in Havana, expectations soared.
Fueling the frenzy was the fact that the homecoming was preceded by the release of a few recent photographs of Chávez, showing the ailing leader smiling in his hospital bed, and a staccato set of posts from the president’s Twitter account, which had lain dormant since November. "We have returned to the Venezuelan fatherland. Thank you, my God! Thank you, my beloved people!†Chávez tweeted. “We will continue the treatment here."
Just what this sudden reappearance means for the stricken leader’s prospects for recovery is the topic of intense speculation. Chávez’s theatrical return was cloaked in secrecy, and the military hospital where he is said to be housed is ringed by security. The press has been effectively stiff armed by Chávez’s praetorian guard, while throngs of well-wishers were shooed behind a police barrier across the street from the bunker-like clinic. Even less certain are the implications for Chávez’s bid to transform this oil-rich but economically troubled nation into a launch pad for “21st Century Socialism,†inspired by the dictums of Latin liberator Simon Bolivar.
Chavez, after all, had not been heard from or seen since Dec. 10, when he jetted to the Cuban capital for a fourth bout of surgery to extract a stubborn tumor, first discovered 20 months ago, and which has dogged his health and the country’s political future ever since. The silence is especially jarring for a nation where nearly every aspect of public life had been tightly scripted by a single leader, who never admitted to sharing power never mind to grooming a successor.
The toll of this leaderless revolution is growing. As rumors fly over Chávez’s health, Venezuela has slipped further into political and economic disarray. Inflation now tops 22 percent, and—despite a defensive 34 percent currency devaluation in January—may reach 30 percent in 2013, according to Alberto Ramos, an emerging-markets analyst at Goldman Sachs. The price spike encourages hoarding, with frantic shoppers emptying the supermarket shelves of basic goods from toilet paper to frozen chicken. Besides shelling out more money for scarce groceries, consumers “have to allocate increasing amounts of time to search for the desired goods and often have to settle for inferior substitutes,†reports Ramos.
Though Venezuela sits on one of the world’s largest proven oil reserves, power failures are frequent. Violent crime has spiked, turning Caracas (with 118 homicides for every 100,000 residents) into the third most violent capital in the world, according to a recent study by the Mexico-based Citizens Council for Public Security and Penal Justice.
All these woes have been gathering for years, growing worse as the Chávez government diverted oil revenues into populist handouts ahead of last year’s elections. The spending binge has pauperized investment in roads and power lines, and bloated the public deficit, now on track to top a staggering 19 percent of GDP. Chávez ’s absence has only made matters worse, adding political uncertainty to the fiscal mess.
Yet, there may be a method to the mystery. Some analysts argue that repatriating Chávez was a preemptive political strike. Venezuelan blogger Francisco Toro calls it a “Soviet-style information management strategyâ€, apparently designed to hush the opposition and quell popular fears that the worst had befallen the stricken leader. All the better for the competing factions of chavismo, who are said to be buying time as they scheme to hold onto power when Chávez is eventually declared unfit to rule and elections are called.
Indeed, Chávez’s political foes appeared to be thrown by his theatrical arrival. In a cautious statement, the opposition standard-bearer Henrique Capriles Radonski, governor of populous Miranda state, gingerly welcomed Chávez back home while challenging the convalescing leader to step up and take charge of a nation perceived to be increasingly adrift.
thers have been less politic, and are busy keeping the blogosphere boiling within conspiracy theories. Unlike his prior returns from earlier treatment in Havana, the critics noted, this time there was no television footage of the smiling leader waving as he descended the stair to the tarmac. No paparazzi breached the motorcade or the wing of the military hospital that had been cleared to tend Venezuela’s First Patient.
No one has heard the Bolivarian leader speak a word (due to a surgical tube in his trachea, officials parry). And what to make of the carefully culled snapshots of Chávez in his Havana hospital bed, a remarkably fit looking 58-year-old cancer patient flanked by his daughters and smiling through a creaseless brow and deep tropical tan?
If Chávez has returned, he has yet to convince. “Chávez is like Santa Claus,†goes one of the most popular anti-Chávez petards sweeping the web. “He arrives by night, dressed in red and flying. No one sees him and only the innocent believe it.†"
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Post by artemis on Feb 28, 2013 15:49:57 GMT -5
"Venezuela VP: Chavez'battling for life
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's vice president said Thursday that President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life while he continues to undergo treatment more than two months after his latest cancer surgery.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television that Chavez "is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him."
The vice president has used similar phrasing in the past, saying on Dec. 20 that Chavez "is fighting a great battle ... for his life, for his health."
Chavez hasn't spoken publicly since before his latest cancer operation in Cuba on Dec. 11. He returned to Venezuela on Feb. 18, and the government says he has been undergoing more treatment at a military hospital in Caracas.
Maduro also called for Venezuelans to keep praying for Chavez and to remain loyal to the president. He said Chavez's health had suffered because he had dedicated himself "body and soul" to his work as president.
Chavez himself has previously acknowledged that he was neglecting his health in recent years, often staying up late and drinking dozens of cups of coffee a day.
The president has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments since June 2011, when he first announced his cancer diagnosis. He hasn't specified the type of cancer or the exact location in his pelvic region where his tumors have been removed."
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Post by artemis on Mar 1, 2013 16:33:32 GMT -5
"Venezuela rejects "absurd" rumors over Chavez death
CARACAS (Reuters) - Senior aides and relatives of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez countered on Friday a crescendo of rumors that the socialist president may be dead from cancer, saying he was still battling for his life.
"There he is, continuing his fight, his battle, and we are sure of victory!" his older brother Adan Chavez, the governor of Barinas state, told cheering supporters.
Speculation about Chavez, 58, hit fever pitch this week, fed in part by assertions from Panama's former ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Guillermo Cochez, that the Venezuelan leader had died.
"The launching of absurd and bizarre rumors by the right wing simply discredits them and isolates them further from the people," Chavez's son-in-law Jorge Arreaza, who is also the country's science minister, said on Twitter.
Apart from one set of photos showing Chavez lying in a hospital bed, he has not been seen nor heard from in public since December 11 cancer surgery in Cuba, his fourth such operation.
The president made a surprise pre-dawn return to a military hospital in Caracas last week, with none of the fanfare that had accompanied his previous homecomings after treatment.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, the OPEC nation's de facto leader and Chavez's preferred successor, said several times this week that the president was fighting for life and urged Venezuelans to be patient.
Opposition politicians accuse the government of being deceitful about Chavez's condition, and compare the secrecy over his medical details with the transparency shown by other Latin American leaders who have suffered cancer.
Cochez said Chavez's relatives had switched off his life support several days ago after he had been in a vegetative state since the end of December. He challenged Venezuela's government to prove him wrong by showing the president in public.
HIGH STAKES
Across the South American nation of 29 million people, Venezuelans are extremely anxious, speculating almost non-stop about Chavez's condition and wondering what the potential end of his 14-year rule might mean for them.
Adding to the tension, several dozen opposition-supporting students have chained themselves together in a Caracas street, demanding to see the president and arguing that Maduro has no right to rule because he was not elected.
With everyone on edge, the relatively routine shooting by police of a murder suspect during a gun battle in downtown Caracas on Friday forced Information Minister Ernesto Villegas to take to Twitter to issue reassurances.
"(Some people) took advantage of the episode to try to sow panic in the city center," he said. "The situation is calm."
Should Chavez die or step down, an election would be held within 30 days, probably pitting Maduro against opposition leader and state governor Henrique Capriles for leadership of the country which boasts the world's biggest oil reserves.
The stakes are high for the region, too, given Chavez's role as the most vocal critic of Washington in Latin America and with the aid he has given leftist governments from Cuba to Bolivia.
Amid the flurry of rumors, Spain's ABC newspaper said on Friday that Chavez had been taken to a presidential retreat on La Orchila island in the Caribbean off Venezuela's coast with his closest family to face the "final stages" of his cancer.
Venezuelan officials have frequently lambasted ABC as being part of an "ultra-right" conspiracy spreading lies about Chavez.
"The bourgeoisie harass him and they assault him constantly," Maduro said on Friday. "Stop the attacks on the commander! Stop the rumors, stop trying to create instability!"
In the latest of a series of short updates on Chavez's health, the government said last week that his breathing difficulties had worsened, and he was using a tracheal tube.
Officials say he suffered a severe respiratory infection following the six-hour operation he had in December for a cancer that was first detected in his pelvic region in June 2011.
Chavez has never said what type of cancer he has.
Remarkably, two opinion polls this week showed that a majority of Venezuelans - 60 percent in one survey, 57 percent in another - believe he will be cured.
Chavez's millions of passionate supporters, who love his down-to-earth style and heavy spending of oil revenue on welfare policies, are struggling to imagine Venezuela without him.
"Of course, he's coming back, back to government," said Jose Urbina, 47, buying photos of Chavez at a pro-government rally. "I want to remember him. I want to put them in my house."
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Post by artemis on Mar 2, 2013 6:30:27 GMT -5
"Venezuela says Chavez receiving chemotherapy
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez has been receiving chemotherapy since recovering from a severe respiratory infection in mid-January and "continues his battle for life," his vice president said late Friday.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro suggested the chemotherapy was continuing in the government's first mention of it as among treatments that Venezuela's cancer-stricken president has received since his Dec. 11 cancer surgery in Cuba.
Maduro made the disclosure after a Mass for Chavez in a new chapel outside the military hospital where authorities say the socialist leader has been since being flown back to Caracas on Feb. 18.
The vice president quoted Chavez as saying he decided to return to Venezuela because he was entering "a new phase" of "more intense and tough" treatments and wanted to be in Caracas for them.
Maduro's offering of the most detailed rundown to date of Chavez's post-operative struggle came hours after an accusation by opposition leader Henrique Capriles that the government has repeatedly lied about Chavez's condition.
"We'll see how they explain to the country in the (coming) days all the lies they've been telling about the president's situation," Capriles, whom Chavez defeated in Oct. 7 elections, said in a tweet.
Chavez has not been seen nor heard from since going to Cuba for his fourth cancer surgery, except for a set of "proof of life" photos released Feb. 15 while he was still in Havana.
Chavez first revealed an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011, and reported undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy after earlier operations.
The government has sent mixed signals on Chavez's condition, although Maduro has said several times that Chavez was battling for his life. He repeated that Friday, and also accused opponents of spreading rumors about Chavez's health to destabilize the nation.
Maduro, Chavez's chosen successor, said his boss' condition was extremely delicate over New Year's as he battled a respiratory infection that required a tracheal tube.
"In mid-January he was improving, the infection could be controlled, but he continued with problems of respiratory insufficiency. Afterward, there was a general improvement, and the doctors along with President Chavez decided to initiate complementary treatments," Maduro said.
"You know what the complementary treatments are, right? They are chemotherapy that is applied to patients after operations."
Cancer specialists couldn't be reached immediately for comment on Maduro's announcement. But oncologists have said that chemotherapy is sometimes given to slow a cancer's progression, ease symptoms and extend a patient's life.
The opposition says Chavez should either be sworn in for the new term he won in the election or declare himself incapable and call a new election. The constitution says he should have been sworn in on Jan. 10, but Venezuela's Supreme Court said it was OK to wait.
Earlier Friday, Maduro accused the Spanish newspaper ABC and Colombia's Caracol network of spreading lies about Chavez's condition.
ABC said without specifying its source that Chavez's cancer had spread to a lung. It said he had been moved to an island compound in the Caribbean.
Chavez's son-in-law, Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, said on state TV that Chavez continues "to fight hard and is in the military hospital, as peaceful as he could be, with his doctors, with his family."
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Post by artemis on Mar 3, 2013 15:59:16 GMT -5
"Chavez critics protest at secrecy over Venezuelan leader
CARACAS (Reuters) - Hundreds of pro-opposition students and other critics of Hugo Chavez's government marched in Caracas on Sunday to demand proof that the cancer-stricken Venezuelan leader is still alive and governing.
The crowd, including various leaders at the more militant end of the Democratic Unity opposition coalition, sang protest songs and waved banners as they rallied in a central neighborhood on a sweltering morning.
"Give us the truth!" and "Stop lying!" read banners.
Underlining the deep political polarization of the South American nation of 29 million people during Chavez's 14-year rule, hundreds of pro-government students also held a rally in support of the president and his ministers.
With Chavez unseen, apart from one set of photos, since a December 11 cancer operation in December, Venezuelans are on edge waiting for developments amid a sea of rumors.
Officials say Chavez is in a Caracas military hospital after returning from Cuba two weeks ago, battling for his life. Though he is breathing via a tracheal tube, unable to speak, and undergoing chemotherapy, the president continues to rule via written and other communications, they say.
RIVAL RALLIES
Opponents, though, accuse Vice President Nicolas Maduro and others of lying about Chavez's condition. And there have been media and Internet accounts that Chavez may have died - all emphatically denied by the government.
"They are violating the constitution. Venezuela has no authorities right now. President Chavez is sick, he hasn't said a word in two months. He cannot govern," said protester Maria Montero, a 56-year-old teacher.
"We want impartial spokesmen to give us information about Chavez, real doctors, not politicians," added Maria Mendoza, 54, who works for state oil company PDVSA, at the opposition march.
At the pro-government rally, in a downtown square near Chavez's presidential palace, red-shirted supporters of the socialist leader danced and sang.
"Chavez is here, in the street! We are Chavez!" one student told state TV, waving a photo of the president.
Should Chavez die or step down, a vote would be held within 30 days, probably pitting Maduro against opposition leader and state governor Henrique Capriles for leadership of a nation that holds the world's biggest oil reserves.
The stakes are also high for the region. Chavez has been the most strident Latin American critic of the United States and financed hefty aid programs for leftist governments from Cuba to Bolivia.
Capriles, who lost to Chavez in last year's presidential election, was on a private visit to the United States during the weekend, prompting accusations from the government that he was plotting and taking money from "fascist" factions there.
Calling him the "decadent prince of the parasitical bourgeoisie," Maduro said late on Saturday that Capriles had met with conservative U.S. political figures Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, and was also planning to meet a U.S. State Department official.
"We know very well about the conspiracies of these people. Let nobody be mistaken about Venezuela. Be careful, those who go abroad to conspire against our people," he said in one of a series of live addresses to the nation.
The opposition leader, a centrist politician who admires Brazil's model, retorted with a Tweet showing a photo of him with two young boys he said were his nephews.
"Here I am with two big conspirators," Capriles joked.
Sunday's opposition demonstration was called to support several dozen students who have chained themselves up in a Caracas street for nearly a week to protest against secrecy over Chavez.
The government has warned protesters against trying to approach the hospital where Chavez is being treated on a closely guarded ninth floor."
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Post by artemis on Mar 5, 2013 4:56:50 GMT -5
"Venezuela: Chavez hit by new, severe infection
ARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez is breathing with greater difficulty as a new and severe respiratory infection has taken hold, Venezuela's government said, describing the cancer-stricken president's condition as "very delicate."
A brief statement read on national television by Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas late Monday carried the sobering news about the charismatic 58-year-old socialist leader's deteriorating health.
Villegas said Chavez is suffering from "a new, severe infection." The state news agency identified it as respiratory.
Chavez, 58, has been undergoing "chemotherapy of strong impact," Villegas added without providing further details.
Chavez has neither been seen nor heard from, except for "proof-of-life" photos released in mid-February, since submitting to a fourth round of surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11 for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area. It was first diagnosed in June 2011.
The government says he returned home on Feb. 18 and has been confined to Caracas' military hospital since.
Villegas said Chavez was "standing by Christ and life conscious of the difficulties he faces."
He also took the opportunity to lash out at "the corrupt Venezuelan right" for what he called a psychological war seeking "scenarios of violence as a pretext for foreign intervention."
He called on Chavez's supporters, who include thousands of well-armed militiamen, to be "on a war footing."
Upon Chavez's death, the opposition would contest the government's candidate in a snap election that it argues should have been called after Chavez was unable to be sworn in on Jan. 10 as the constitution stipulates.
Indeed, the campaigning has already begun, although undeclared, with Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who Chavez has said should succeed him, frequently commandeering all broadcast channels Chavez-style to tout the "revolution" and vilify the opposition.
Chavez has run Venezuela for more than 14 years as a virtual one-man show, gradually placing all state institutions under his personal control. But the former army paratroop officer who rose to fame with a failed 1992 coup, never groomed a successor with his force of personality.
Chavez was last re-elected on Oct. 7, and his challenger, youthful Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles, is expected to again be the opposition's candidate.
On state TV Monday night, opinion show host Mario Silva slung the latest volley of mud at Capriles, claiming his family had purchased a multi-million-dollar New York City apartment with stolen money.
Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges condemned Villegas' political use of Monday night's health bulletin. "I lament such a poverty of humanity," he tweeted.
Pro-Chavez militant Enrique Barroso sounded grave when reached by telephone.
"This is not easy for him nor for us," he said. "We call on the people to pray and hold vigil for the health of the president."
One of Chavez's three daughters, Maria Gabriela, expressed thanks to well-wishers via her Twitter account. "We will prevail!" she wrote, echoing a favorite phrase of her father. "With God always."
There has been speculation that Chavez's cancer has spread to his lungs and can't be halted.
An oncologist not involved in Chavez's treatment, which has been conducted in tightly enforced secrecy, told The Associated Press that he viewed Villegas' statement as recognition that Chavez's condition is "truly precarious."
He called into question the veracity of Villegas' statement that Chavez had been undergoing chemotherapy, saying patients in such a delicate state are not put on chemotherapy.
Maduro said last week, in the first such announcement, that the president had begun receiving chemotherapy around the end of January.
Doctors have said that such therapy was not necessarily to try to beat Chavez's cancer into remission but could have been palliative, to extend Chavez's life and ease his suffering.
While in Cuba, Chavez suffered severe respiratory infection in late December that nearly killed him, Maduro said last week. A tracheal tube was inserted then and government officials have said his breathing remained labored.
They have sent mixed signals throughout Chavez's post-operative days, and in an early February opinion survey nearly three in five Venezuelans said they believed the president whose largesse has endeared him to the poor would recover.
In Cuba, Chavez has undergone a series of radiation treatments and chemotherapy after his operations.
The entire treatment regimen was kept far from public scrutiny."
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Post by artemis on Mar 5, 2013 15:41:37 GMT -5
"Venezuela expels 2 US officials as Chavez worsens
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's vice president called in the nation's top leaders Tuesday hours after ailing President Hugo Chavez apparently took a turn for the worse, and announced on national television that a U.S. Embassy attache was being expelled for meeting with military officers and planning to destabilize the country.
Foreign Minister Elias Jaua also announced the expulsion of a second U.S. official, also a U.S. Air Force attache.
Supporters of the 58-year-old president visited churches to pray for his health, a day after the government described his condition as "very delicate" after undergoing cancer surgery in December.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro told Venezuela's high military command and civilian leaders that the U.S. Embassy's Air Force attache, Col. David Delmonaco, had 24 hours to leave the country. He said the official had been spying on Venezuela's military.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Greg Adams confirmed Delmonaco's identity but had no immediate comment.
In Washington, Army Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, said, "We are aware of the allegations made by Venezuelan Vice President Maduro over state-run television in Caracas, and can confirm that our Air Attache ... is en route back to the United States."
Late Monday, Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said Chavez was suffering from "a new, severe infection." The state news agency identified it as a respiratory infection.
Chavez has been undergoing "chemotherapy of strong impact," Villegas added without providing further details.
Chavez has neither been seen nor heard from, except for photos released in mid-February, since submitting to a fourth round of surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11 for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area. It was first diagnosed in June 2011.
The government said Chavez returned home on Feb. 18 and has been confined to Caracas' military hospital ever since.
Villegas said Chavez was "standing by Christ and life, conscious of the difficulties he faces."
He also lashed out at "the corrupt Venezuelan right" for what he called a psychological war seeking "scenarios of violence as a pretext for foreign intervention." He called on Chavez's supporters, who include thousands of well-armed militiamen, to be "on a war footing."
Upon Chavez's death, the opposition would contest the government's candidate in a snap election that it argues should have been called after Chavez was unable to be sworn in on Jan. 10 as the constitution stipulates.
Indeed, the campaigning has already begun, although undeclared. Maduro, who Chavez has said should succeed him, has frequently commandeered all broadcast channels, Chavez-style, to tout the "revolution" and vilify the opposition.
At a small new chapel on the military hospital's grounds christened "New Hope," a few dozen supporters gathered to pray for Chavez, many weeping. But the grounds were otherwise eerily quiet, and Caracas' streets teemed with the usual snarls of traffic, street vendors and bank lines as people went about normal business.
Chavez has run Venezuela for more than 14 years as a virtual one-man show, gradually placing all state institutions under his personal control. But the former army paratroop commander, who rose to fame by launching a failed 1992 coup, never groomed a successor with his same kind of force of personality.
Chavez was last re-elected on Oct. 7, and his challenger, youthful Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles, is expected to again be the opposition's candidate in any new election.
One of Chavez's three daughters, Maria Gabriela, expressed thanks to well-wishers via her Twitter account. "We will prevail!" she wrote, echoing a favorite phrase of her father. "With God always."
Maduro said last week that the president had begun receiving chemotherapy around the end of January.
Doctors have said such therapy is not necessarily to beat Chavez's cancer into remission, but could have been palliative, to extend Chavez's life and ease his suffering.
Dr. Carlos Castro, scientific director of the Colombian League Against Cancer, said "it's difficult to predict" when Chavez might die, but he believes "it's a matter of days."
Castro said Chavez could face further respiratory complications if he receives more intense chemotherapy treatment.
If the president's medical team "gives him strong chemotherapy again, then it would not be surprising if some infections reappear," Castro said in a telephone interview.
While in Cuba, Chavez suffered a severe respiratory infection in late December that nearly killed him, Maduro said last week. A tracheal tube was inserted then, and government officials have said his breathing remained labored.
Libardo Rodriguez, a 60-year-old orange juice vendor, said he was very worried after Monday evening's announcement and the government should provide more information about Chavez.
"We are worried because he does not appear. The truth is that I don't know what's happening," said Rodriguez, who identified himself as a Chavez supporter.
"There are many rumors and nobody knows who to believe," he said. "We hope he's alive."
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