 | Original in Spanish. Computer translation followed by editing by me for clarity. All mistakes are mine. |
Guillermo Cochez, Panamanian politician,
| Formerly Panama's ambassador to the Organization of American States. He's been harshly critical of Hugo, and the government of Panama cashiered Cochez last month for the statements he made to the OAS about Chavez. More on Cochez at Foreign Policy if you can get past the paywall. |
claims that the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez passed away four days after he was removed from an artificial respirator.
| That's the claim; seems that Hugo wasn't doing so well before that. |
In an interview hosted by CNN Chile, the former ambassador of Panama to the OAS affirmed that on December 30 Chavez was declared to be brain dead while in Cuba, after which he returned to Venezuela in that same state. Cochez claims that this is the reason that Chavez was not visited by different proxies, and he questioned the most recent photographs published of Chavez with his daughters.
The former diplomat claims that the information came from what are "internal sources of the Venezuelan government" and that the information circulated weeks ago. "[I] Challenge to the Venezuelan government to contradict me, and that show president Chavez and thus will be known what I say is true or lie" to clarify the situation to the people of Venezuela.
CNN Chile queried the Department of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela who replied that this version of events is not true and is contradicted by the medical information released at present about the President of Venezuela. They declined to discuss the matter further.
| The article also said the Venezuelan government has asked Conchez to "clarify" his remarks, presumably in person. |
Cóchez also stated that 4 days after Chavez's daughters asked to disconnect Chavez from the artificial respirator December 30th, Chavez passed away. |