Chavez Undergoing Chemo, Reports VP
Optimistic About President’s Condition
HAVANA TIMES — Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is undergoing chemotherapy to combat his cancer, but his strength is “superior” to the medical procedures that followed his December 11 operation, said Vice President Nicolas Maduro on Friday, reported DPA news.
“We have to say that the treatments being received by Commander Chavez are hard, but his strength is greater than those treatments,” said Maduro while leaving a Mass held in the chapel of the military hospital where Chavez has been hospitalized for the past 12 days.
Maduro denied that the government is hiding the truth about the president’s condition, attributing such rumors to the “desperate and inhumane opposition.”
“The opposition lives in a world of hatred and ill feelings. We wouldn’t dare make up something about a person as pure as Commander Chavez. We are telling the people to be full of energy. The commander will need this to face this battle for his life,” he added.
In addition, Maduro accused the opposition of circulating rumors about the alleged seriousness of the president in order to generate fear among people.
He explained that Chavez is undergoing new chemotherapy treatments to attack his cancer following the worsening of his post-surgery condition.
“There was a general improvement — as we reported — of his entire clinical picture, so the doctors and the commander decided to initiate complementary treatments. Do you know what complementary therapies are? They’re chemotherapy treatments applied to patients after their operations, like the chemotherapy and radiation treatments he received after his operations in 2011,” Maduro told reporters.
He added that the president must be left “in peace and quiet” to receive those treatments, thus rejecting the opposition’s demand that Chavez be sworn in for his 2013-2019 term.
“We’re asking the people to maintain their unity, and that they be fierce fighters against rumors,” he stressed.
Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on December 11 for the fourth time to remove cancer in his abdomen. Since that time he has not had direct contact with the public.
The leader spent over two months convalescing in Havana and was then transferred to the Military Hospital in Caracas 12 days ago. The government said Chavez is still affected by respiratory problems and therefore requires a tracheal cannula.
Maduro said Chavez communicates with his inner circle in writing and by “other means created by the commander.”
While Chavez and has shown authoritarian tendencies, to call him a “totalitarian fascist” is beyond the pale. He has won elections and referenda within a multiparty system even if he has tilted things in his favour somewhat.
Touche’. However, I don’t like Correa in Equador either but I don’t think he is a fascist nor do I believe his government is totalitarian. I realize that many people find Chavez charming and his style informal. I much prefer the Harvard-educated, soft-spoken style of my President.
Whenever you don’t agree with someone they become a “totalitarian fascist” or despot. Hugo Chavez has fought and won many multiparty elections that have been described as scrupulously fair by all international observers. And he has done that despite the corporate press and the big corporations backing his opponents.
Honestly, do you think if Obama (or the leader of any other democratic country) had missed his swearing in and had been heard or seen for almost 3 months, that his political opponents wouldn’t be asking questions and the news media wouldn’t be reporting rumors and speculating about his true condition? Gimme a break.
What about those “wishful-thinking rumors FOR the health situation of Hugo”? Beyond the fun in the speculation regarding these despots, what harm is really being done? It’s not like these rumors are to blame for the recent 32% currency devaluation,.or the 25% inflation rate, or latin america’s highest murder rate. Nope,.Chavez himself can take most of the credit for these low marks. Let’s just wait and see how Hugo makes out over the next little bit.
Cort, make no mistake. Chavez is not guilty of being ill. His blame lies in his attempt to deceive the Venezuelan people regarding the severity of his illness. In every case you mentioned in your comment, these Presidents illnesses were either well known or well-disguised. In neither of the examples you gave did these leaders “disappear” for two months and counting. As far as the staying power of the revolution, it remains to be seen. Keep in mind, Capriles garnered 42% of the vote. This was against a seemingly heroic cancer-surviving Chavez. Against the former bus driving, thick-tongued Maduro, who knows how Capriles would fare? Besides, I have no problems with a socialist-leaning Venezuelan revolution. Heck, Sweden is far more to the left than Venezuela. I do not like totalitarian fascists like Chavez however. Venezuela will soon be better off, no matter how hard you cross your fingers and wish otherwise.
FDR was sick most of his elected 4 terms as President and real bad off the last 3 years but not even the Republicans ( who knew he was ill when most people in the USA did not) attacked or hounded him ( and they hated him worst than Chavez is hated by the oppo’s) nor did people attack presidents Wilson or Reagan when their wives pretty much ran the show the last years of their terms.
And arrogance has little to do with it, he may be better off than the haters realize and/or he may be waiting for the process to be sped up which it has in the last months by the grassroots. Either way get use to it Moses the revolution is here for awhile.
Cort
Chavez: The Harassment of a Patient
By ELEAZAR DIAZ RANGEL, Mar 1st
I don’t believe modern history has ever seen a medical patient so pressured, hounded, and harassed as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has been over the course of the last month.
In particular, a medical patient has never been so under assault as President Chavez has been in the days since he returned from Havana, where he recently spent several weeks in cancer-related convalescence.
The forces behind the harassment of this patient (the President) are based both at home and abroad, with the most recent example coming out of Washington last week.
There, in the United States capital, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland not only attempted to interpret the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuelan (1999) but went as far as to recommend what we the Venezuelan people should do “if the President becomes unable to govern”.
rest of the article is http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7987
Why is it, when wishful-thinking rumors against the health situation of either Hugo or Fidel turn out to be wrong, an apology is never made by the wishful-thinkers? They never even make reference to them!
It reminds me of when those who believed in the “Y2K” scare, stocked up on giant quantities of toilet paper and canned goods, and waited for the apocalypse. When nothing catastrophic happened, not a word was heard from all those welll-stocked, hysterical people.
When any of the rumors about either Hugo or Fidel turn out not to be true, not a word of apology is heard. Why is that?
No surprises here. If after four admitted surgeries and even more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Chavez still requires even more chemotherapy, he must be in bad shape and one does not have to have a medical degree to recognize the prognosis is anything but good. It is appropriate and possibly heartfelt to wish Chavez a speedy recovery but anyone who has had chemotherapy or has lived with someone who has undergone this treatment knows that there is no way he is fit to be President of Venezuela. Even if you assume everything Maduro says is true (and who does?), it still begs the question why this guy is so unwilling to step down and just focus on his health. Does he assume that even at best 20% (maybe) of his healthy capacity to govern, he is still the best leader for Venezuela? How arrogant is that? There are hard to believe reports that while a majority of Venezuelans remain optimistic that Chavez will recover, an increasing number of his supporters are joining with the opposition in Venezuela in demanding to see a body…dead or alive.