Venezuelan government releases pictures of Chavez next to his daughters
Venezuelans got the first glimpse in more than two months of their ailing president Friday in a series of photos the government released in a televised announcement. In the photos, Hugo Chavez is lying on a blue pillow, flanked by his two daughters, while he reads the Cuban official newspaper Granma. He is smiling, and his face looks a little swollen.
In the weeks since having cancer surgery on December 11, officials have been criticized for giving vague, sometimes contradicting updates on the president's health. Chavez, who has shown his strength after past surgeries by calling in to speak on state television, uncharacteristically has not been heard from or seen.
Chavez is temporarily having difficulty speaking after doctors inserted a tracheal tube, Venezuelan Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said.
“Two months after a complicated post-surgery period, the patient remains conscious, fully intellectually aware, in thorough communication with his governing team and on top of the fundamental duties of his post,” Villegas said.
A respiratory infection that the president suffered has been controlled, but he still has some “insufficiency” in his breathing, Villegas said.
The photos were taken Thursday evening at the Cuban hospital where Chavez is being treated, the minister said.
Chavez's allies maintain that he's running his country from Havana, while critics say that the country is in limbo without a leader. Chavez's lengthy absence from Venezuela hasn't stopped his government from making some significant changes.
This week, the country devalued its currency, creating fear among some Venezuelans that the move would mean a sharp spike in the cost of imported goods. The decision came straight from Chavez, officials said.
Speaking to the Telesur network, Venezuela's minister of science, technology and innovation (and son in law), Jorge Arreaza, said Chavez is able to communicate even if he has some difficulty speaking.
“He can communicate,” Arreaza said. “He writes, he can be understood. It's not the voice he is known for, but he can communicate.”
Chavez's voice difficulties are “reversible,” he said.
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However, since 8/12/2012 he has not made an appearance in public until the publication of these photos in which his face appears almost exactly the same as before the date mentioned - in spite of being close to death and possibly not taking much food for weeks.
Is it really him?
Well...............
I, for one, have no problems understanding the meaning of what poster (5) Mr. Brasileiro writes....
Maybe if you just tried a little harder, traveller............
Nothing like a little bit of nepotisim...
Bedridden, can't speak, but can still run a country... oh OK...
As you are as stupid as Brassiere then I don't doubt you 'understand' what he is 'saying' which is more than Brassiere does.
Not a comment about your mate Dead Man Not Walking though: worried he might be stuffed, he has his eyes shut?
Go back to winding your old French/Ruskie watch up, you can donate it to Chubby to put in his coffin: that will be one piece of crap out of your way. Try and get in with him, that will be a BIG piece of crap out of our way.
Photographs can be too easily manipulated, and photoshopped. A really good forger could make you believe that Chavez was anywhere doing anything.
This means nothing, at all.
Hey Venezula, some video proof next time, huh?
Why can't the Chavistas do the same? They must think that the general population is retarded. The model or Chavez look a like does not convince me
please keep him alive for just enough time for him to witness the blossoming democracy In The Falklands,
bad for his family, but good for everyone else.....
Good God, This is Venezuela we are talking about, not Hollywood
Thanks brother.
@12
CryingR, please go to your castle, milorde. Dont cry for me!
Meanwhile not a drip, not a tube, not a piece of medical equipment in sight as he sits up in bed in his bolivarian jacket.
Wot a load of rollocks.
Serious pelvic cancer with complications could mean he has lost a leg or two.
That'll depress him alright.
There are press reports in Central America that Chávez has returned to Venezuela. He has announced his arrival of Facebook! No pictures yet!
The picures I have seen you still cannot see his legs.
I don't know about come home for treatment: to die more likely.
Still, not much longer with a bit of luck.
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