Venezuelan VP heads to Cuba to visit ailing Chavez

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced Friday night that he was traveling to Cuba to visit President Hugo Chavez, who is recovering from cancer surgery in Havana.

Maduro said during the inauguration of a state governor that he and other government officials would fly to Cuba late Friday. He did not specify how long he would be away but said Energy Minister Hector Navarro would be in charge of government affairs in the meantime.

Maduro's trip comes amid growing uncertainty about Chavez's health.

The Venezuelan leader has not been seen or heard from since undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery Dec. 11, and government officials have said he might not return in time for his scheduled Jan. 10 inauguration for a new six-year term. There have been no updates on Chavez's condition since Maduro announced Monday night that he had received a phone call from the president who was up and walking.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelan-vp-heads-cuba-visit-ailing-chavez-003628083.html

[Purveyor]

1. I hope they do a thorough autopsy on him. He sure went downhill fast... eom

[bitchkitty]

3. I'll bet you do.

<deleted rude remark>

[Purveyor]

7. Actually I am seriously concerned he could have been poisoned as has happened in the past

to some foreign leaders. Hell they dug up Arafats body just recently to check for radioactive poisoning.

Sorry you took it the wrong way.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Have been reading for years about Nixon's Pinochet's poisoning former Pres. Eduardo Frei.

For years, the public passively accepted the "news" he had died of complications after surgery until more people kept pressing for better investigation.

From the Guardian:

Six arrested over murder of former Chilean president

• Eduardo Frei Montalva was poisoned, says judge
• Members of General Pinochet's secret police held

Jonathan Franklin in Santiago
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 December 2009 16.51 EST

Six men have been arrested in Chile over the murder of the country's former president Eduardo Frei Montalva, whose death in 1982 has been one of the most enduring mysteries of the Pinochet regime.

Three suspects were charged with murder and three others with being accomplices to murder.

Frei Montalva died at the Santa Maria clinic in Santiago, where he was recuperating from a hernia operation. Judge Alejandro Madrid, who investigated the case for seven years, said yesterday that the former Chilean leader was poisoned to death as multiple doses of thallium and mustard gas were secretly mixed with medications and injected into the president's body.

"This was an action by the military intelligence of the dictator (Pinochet), with a clear and precise objective, the elimination of President Frei," said Alvaro Varela, a human rights lawyer working for the Frei family. "Those charged today are not the only ones ... there are more and we are headed in their direction."

Family members had suspected Frei was poisoned after being tipped off by former aides to General Pinochet. In his 2002 book, Imperfect Crime, Chilean journalist Jorge Molina profiled Eugenio Barrios, a chemist who worked for the Chilean secret police on a series of radical experiments including the production of anthrax, botulism and the nerve gas sarin. Barrios, who was murdered in Uruguay, is suspected of administering the poison to Frei.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/08/murder-chile-president-frei-montalva

[bitchkitty]

17. I'm sorry too.

I'm too used to the ghouls - sorry I thought you were one of them.

[MADem]

15. He's got sarcoma and it is late stage, that's what is wrong with him.

There's no coming back from that.

[bitchkitty]

18. You're a doctor? Did you have to get a permit to fly to Cuba to diagnose him? n/t

[MADem]

21. His VP made the trip, so I didn't have to. Here ya go, some light reading....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20873265

This report is from today:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has suffered "new complications" after a cancer operation in Cuba, his vice-president has said.

In a televised address from Cuba, Nicolas Maduro said Mr Chavez continued to be in a "delicate state".

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/31/us-venezuela-chavez-idUSBRE8BU00K20121231

CARACAS | Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:00pm EST
(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is suffering further 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 grow for the ailing 58-year-old socialist leader, who has not been seen in public nor heard from in three weeks.

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, and officials say doctors then had to fight a respiratory infection.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Venezuelan-VP-in-Cuba-to-visit-ailing-Chavez-_13287872

His great friends in Russia have given him up for dead--this is PRAVDA talking, here: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/17-12-2012/123202-russia_venezuela_chavez-0/

Hugo Chavez is unlikely to be able to return to his job as the president of Venezuela. The Venezuelan leader has been seriously ill for several years. In July 2011, it was announced that he had a malignant tumor. In May of this year, it was said that Cahvez had metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma - a type of muscle tissue cancer. Chavez has received several courses of treatment, but they have not brought the desired results. According to latest forecasts from his doctor, Jose Rafael Marquina, the president has a few months left. The doctor even unveiled the approximate date: Chavez may pass away in April 2013.

Even his pals in Iran are writing the obituary: http://tehrantimes.com/opinion/104485-venezuela-after-chavez

As Chavez’s close confidant, Maduro has taken charge of many presidential duties over the past few years. His conduct and method of leadership is a carbon copy of the president’s, albeit with a difference, since Maduro does not have his mentor’s flair for mobilizing the masses. Chavez’s charismatic personality and his ability to win over millions of Venezuelans through his rhetoric are regarded as the main pillars of his popularity among the people. Maduro should look for similar tools and methods to win the votes of the Chavez supporters. Otherwise, it will not be difficult for the opposition to push him out of office.

And not ONE propaganda picture of the fellah smiling in a tracksuit from the hospital.

Even the most sanguine interpretation of these reports suggests a dire situation, at a minimum.

[Arctic Dave]

2. For a "dictator" he seems to have an established chain of authority.

Almost like ours.

[Zorro]

4. The relative suddenness of this trip makes one wonder

whether they are all going to pay their last respects.

[JackRiddler]

5. All thrilled to see him die, are you?

[Zorro]

6. Care to comment on the contents of the article?

Or do you prefer to make personal insults and get your keister drubbed?

[JackRiddler]

8. Nothing personal about it - I don't know you.

Your posts (like on the bogus Chavez death rumor threads of months ago) have made your extreme hostility to Chavez clear. It's no suprise when you throw in that he's already dead.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Same kind of people have also insisted at various times that Fidel Castro died.

This has been going on for decades with former President Castro.

I guess time wears very heavy on the minds of those who yearn for Latin America to be handed back to the right-wing, US-serving, racist, greedy, amoral, pretentious Latin American oligarchs.

[Zorro]

11. I said he's already dead?

Nope.

But his time might be short, if one is permitted to speculate on the reason for Maduro's sudden trip to Havana.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Could be he wanted to pick up the money he loaned him before his spirit flies

to what right-wingers view as a dictator's paradise. But wait, all the degenerate murderers, torturers, death squad members, SOA grads, hastily departed, despised (rightfully so) dictators who moved there have been RIGHT-WINGERS. He'd feel so out of place!

Maybe Hugo Chavez shouldn't die, after all. His country wants him back.

[Zorro]

13. When the time comes to stick a fork in Hugo

I'm sure you'll be looking for his resurrection on the third day.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Why? n/t

[I love weed]

16. It's not his choice.

If it'в time to die, it's time to die.

[Zorro]

19. Maduro to address the Venezuelan people tonight from Havana

[Zorro]

20. Venezuela VP: Chavez suffers 'new complications'