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Caribbean-Latin America
Chavez dwindling
2012-12-31
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is suffering more complications linked to a respiratory infection that hit him after his fourth cancer operation in Cuba, his vice president said in a somber broadcast on Sunday.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro flew to Cuba to visit Chavez in the hospital as supporters' fears grew for the ailing 58-year-old socialist leader, who has not been seen in public nor heard from in three weeks.
Sort of like our secretary of state, almost...
Chavez had already suffered unexpected bleeding caused by the six-hour operation on December 11 for an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area. Officials said doctors then had to fight a respiratory infection.
Pneumonia? Not a good thing to have happen in a post-op recovery for recurrent cancer.
"Just a few minutes ago we were with President Chavez. He greeted us and he himself talked about these complications," Maduro said in the broadcast, adding that the third set of complications arose because of the respiratory infection.

"Thanks to his physical and spiritual strength, Comandante Chavez is confronting this difficult situation."

Maduro said Chavez's condition remained "delicate" - a term he has used since the day after the surgery, when he warned Venezuelans to prepare for difficult times and urged them to keep the president in their prayers.

"We trust that the avalanche of love and solidarity with Comandante Chavez, together with his immense will to live and the care of the best medical specialists, will help our president win this new battle," Maduro said.
"But if not, you folks had better get used to me being in charge."
A senior government official in Caracas said the New Year's Eve party in the capital's central Plaza Bolivar had been canceled. "Everyone pray for strength for our comandante to overcome this difficult moment," the official, Jacqueline Faria, added on Twitter after making the announcement.

Chavez's allies have openly discussed the possibility that he may not be able to return to Venezuela to be inaugurated for his third six-year term as president on the constitutionally mandated date of January 10. Senior "Chavista" officials have said the people's wishes were made clear when the president was re-elected in October, and that the constitution makes no provision for what happens if a president-elect cannot take office on January 10.

Opposition leaders say any postponement would be just the latest sign that Chavez is not in a fit state to govern and that new elections should be called to choose his replacement. If Chavez had to step down, new elections would be called within 30 days.

Opposition figures believe they have a better shot against Maduro, who was named earlier this month by Chavez as his heir apparent, than against the charismatic president who for 14 years has been nearly invincible at the ballot box.

Any constitutional dispute over succession could lead to a messy transition toward a post-Chavez era in the country that boasts the biggest oil reserves in the world.
'Messy transition' being the code-phrase for a coup by the Chavistas and outright dictatorship. In the name of the 'people', of course...
Posted by:Steve White

#4  The Finest Health Care in the Western Hemisphere.
Mikey Moore told me...
Posted by: tu3031   2012-12-31 16:19  

#3  How about some flowers laced with ebola?
Posted by: gorb   2012-12-31 14:05  

#2  I'm trying to find my microscopic violin, but having problems remembering where I left it.

Maybe I'll just hum a few bars of Shostakovich's
String Quartet No. 6 in G major.
Posted by: Mullah Richard   2012-12-31 09:36  

#1  As Instapundit often says: "Faster, please"
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia   2012-12-31 00:08  

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