MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Chavez under treatment in Cuba names a potential “transition council”
The Venezuelan president health is rapidly deteriorating President Hugo Chavez, in Cuba for cancer treatment, named key members of a Council of State Wednesday led by his Vice president, which some analysts see as a potential transitional body.
The president, staffed the council, a consultative body led by Vice President Elias Jaua that had existed only on paper since the 1999 Constitution, raising eyebrows as Venezuelans fret about their leader's health.
Members include Jaua; Ambassador to the OAS Roy Chaderton; UN human rights council envoy German Mundarain; writer Luis Britto Garcia and Admiral Carlos Rafael Giacopini, the state-run Official Gazette reported.
Chavez's cancer, first detected in his pelvic area in June 2011, was found to have recurred in February. Since surgery to remove the new lesion, he has undergone repeated rounds of treatment in the Castro brothers-ruled Cuba, his closest regional ally. He last returned from Havana on April 26.
The latest unconfirmed news is that Chavez has to move around in a wheel chair, when not walking with the help of a cane.
The 57-year-old Chavez, who is running for a third six-year term in the October 7 election, has never publicly revealed the kind of cancer he has or its exact location, and his health has been the subject of intense speculation.
Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro skirted reporters' questions as to whether the council was any kind of transitional body, given Chavez's health crisis, as many analysts have suggested.
Chavez, in power since 1999, is running for re-election as a “revolutionary socialist” against Henrique Capriles, the youthful Miranda state governor and centre-left candidate for the united opposition.
Leaders in Chavez's party on Monday held a press conference to deny press reports that they were considering other options for the October 7 election.
Earlier this month, Chavez put his health and political future in the spotlight, begging at a pre-Easter mass: “Please don't take me yet.”
“Give me your crown of thorns, Christ, I will bleed; Give me your cross -- 100 crosses -- and I will carry them for you. But give me life, because I still have things to do for my people and my country,” Chavez said.
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Read all commentsThis man has destroyed Venezuela´s present and future, the hundreds of nationalized enterprises are falling apart in corruption and negligence. There´s a businessman from Venezuela who migrated to Mexico recently, he came with all his family and brought some of his employees along with him to start all over again in Mexico. He misses his country, his culture and his people. He tells us that the whole country´s economy has been destroyed by Chavez, that the billions of dollars Venezuela receives for its oil exports are being wasted in unproductive projects and frivolous policies.
May 04th, 2012 - 10:54 am 0And now they will not get rid of Chavez via elections, he has the power and won´t let go. Just look at who his friends are,,,the Castros.
He'll be gone by Christmas.
May 04th, 2012 - 11:45 am 0Once you start praying for a crown of thorns and 100 crosses to carry you know your time is up.
Dying. Can't wait. Burn in any hell you can imagine. Actually, burn in EVERY hell you can imagine.
May 04th, 2012 - 12:39 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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