Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in a tough fight after suffering complications in cancer surgery

[Judi Lynn]

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez in a tough fight after suffering complications in cancer surgery
By Ian James and Fabiola Sanchez
Associated PressAssociated Press
Posted: 12/13/2012 10:21:24 AM PST
December 13, 2012 6:23 PM GMTUpdated: 12/13/2012 10:21:26 AM PST

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's government says President Hugo Chavez suffered complications during his cancer surgery in Cuba but is recovering.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas says Chavez suffered "bleeding" that required, as he put it, "corrective measures."

He said on Thursday that Chavez was recovering favorably two days after the operation.

Somber confidants of President Hugo Chavez say he is going through a difficult recovery, and one close ally is warning Venezuelans that their leader may not make it back for his swearing-in next month.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Wednesday night that Chavez was in "stable condition" and was with close relatives in Havana. Reading a statement, he said the government invites people to "accompany President Chavez in this new test with their prayers."

More:
http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_22185275/venezuelas-hugo-chavez-tough-fight-after-suffering-complications?source=rss

[Judi Lynn]

1. Hugo Chávez's Bolívarian revolution will soldier on without him

Hugo Chávez's Bolívarian revolution will soldier on without him

If the president does not recover Venezuela will miss his charismatic leadership. But his dream has come to fruition

Richard Gott
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 December 2012 13.15 EST

The fate of Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela and the hope of progressive change in Latin America, lies in the balance. Last weekend he appeared on television to alert his people that his cancer, first diagnosed last year, had taken a serious turn for the worse, as he set off on a fresh journey to Havana for further surgery.

He was in obvious discomfort and admitted to extreme pain. Invoking the memory of his personal hero, Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century liberator of Latin America, he implied that he might not be around for the next stage of his Bolivarian revolution. He announced clearly that his successor, for whom everyone should vote when the time came, would be Nicolas Maduro, the vice-president since October and the foreign minister since 2006. Then on Wednesday, after a six-hour operation, Maduro made clear in sombre tones that the president's recovery would be a hard and complex process. The mood in Caracas and throughout the country, from government ministers to the impoverished inhabitants of the shanty towns, is now exceptionally bleak, as it begins to dawn on the population at large that the 14-year-old Chávez era is drawing to a close.

There is an immediate timetable for the weeks ahead. On Sunday there will be elections for governors of the country's 28 states, which are mostly at the moment in the hands of Chávez supporters. Then, on 10 January, there is scheduled to be an inauguration ceremony when Chávez, who handily won the presidential elections in October, would have been expected to start a new six-year term. Government ministers indicate that that might now be in doubt. There is another significant date approaching: 17 December marks the anniversary of the death of Bolívar, who died in Santa Marta, Colombia, at the age of 47, probably of tuberculosis. Might Chávez, who is 58, be holding on for just such an appropriate moment to die?

Were this to happen, the Venezuelan constitution would grind into action, causing Diosdado Cabello, the president of the national assembly and an old military comrade of Chávez, to be catapulted briefly into the presidency and charged with holding a presidential election within 30 days. The government candidate would be Cabello's rival, the Chávez-anointed Maduro.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/13/hugo-chavez-bolivarian-dream

[struggle4progress]

2. Venezuela's Chavez suffers complications after surgery

By Brian Ellsworth and Daniel Wallis
CARACAS | Thu Dec 13, 2012 5:51pm EST

(Reuters) - Venezuela's Hugo Chavez suffered bleeding after a six-hour cancer operation in Cuba, the government said on Thursday, adding to a stream of somber news about the ailing president's condition.

Chavez's health has worsened dramatically since he won re-election two months ago, casting doubt on the future of his "21st century socialism" project, which won him huge support among the poor but infuriated adversaries who call him a fledgling dictator.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said doctors used "corrective measures" to stop the bleeding that resulted from the 58-year-old Chavez's cancer surgery on Tuesday.

It was his fourth operation since mid-2011. He claimed he was cured earlier this year, and was able to campaign for the election in October, but now appears to be fighting for his life again ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/13/us-venezuela-chavez-surgery-idUSBRE8BC16520121213

[joshcryer]

3. Telling that this isn't posted in LBN...

...

[Judi Lynn]

4. It most certainly HAS been. It was posted within a moment or so of this post in LatAm.

I added it to the Chavez recuperation thread I already had there:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hNWcej44GD13f7vVSxr5S9soPh9Q?docId=b30bca62118c48cb9ec994d9b72f8e8a

Your bizarre attempt to portray me as hiding an article from LBN simply defies understanding.

Very sad.

[joshcryer]

5. Exactly. It wasn't its own OP, it was buried in a thread with the exact opposite implication.

Chavez is not doing well. Hopefully he'll recover, but far be it for you to post the fact that he's not doing well, even admitted by the Venezuelan government, in LBN, as its own OP, as you did here in Lat. Am.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Chavez recovering well from cancer surgery

World Friday 14 December 2012 - 09:08

Chavez recovering well from cancer surgery

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suffered bleeding during surgery for cancer in Cuba on Tuesday but is recovering well, his Communications Minister said.


Doctors have upgraded Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's condition to favourable from stable after his latest cancer surgery in Cuba, according to the country's vice-president.

"In the last few hours his process of recovery has evolved from stable to favourable, which allows us to continue saying that there is a growing recovery in Comandante Hugo Chavez's situation," Nicolas Maduro told a rally of Socialist Party supporters on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said the 58-year-old president was recovering well two days after his operation, but that he had suffered "bleeding" that required "corrective measures".

"The patient is recovering progressively and favourably and his vital signs are normal," he said.
"This recovery process, nevertheless, will require a prudent period of time as a consequence of the complexity of the surgery performed,'' Villegas added.

Villegas expressed hope a day earlier about the president returning home for his January 10 swearing in for a new six year term, but said in a written message on a government website that if Chavez is not well enough by then "our people should be prepared to understand it''.

More:
http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/world/Chavez-s-recovering-well-from-cancer-surgery-20121214