MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

January 10, a decisive date for the Venezuelan political situation

Nelson Bocaranda, considered the most reliable journalist and columnist in Venezuela

As we approach January 10, or even before New Year, the big news will be if a re-elected president but physically handicapped and sick is capable of taking the oath for another six years for which he was re-elected last 7 October, says Nelson Bocaranda, probably the best informed journalist in Venezuela whose reports have sustainedly proven right.

The phrase is a synthesis of comments from members of the administration of President Hugo Chavez who currently is in Cuba allegedly undergoing treatment to recover from the intense cancer chemotherapy he was exposed for months to combat the disease.

“This is what a raft of colleagues and me have found out and is covered by a mantle of secrecy, stealth, censorship, self censorship and above all fear from current officials who in the best of cases beg for ‘prudence’ when talking about the current political situation”, said Bocaranda.

“It’s OK you were king last 25 June 2011 when you broke the news of the cancer and even surprised all of us committed to the Bolivarian process, but be careful about another breaking news about his deterioration, without mercy, because some of us will not forgive you”, Bocaranda revealed about the ‘prudence’ warnings and messages he has been receiving.

Bocaranda said a similar situation has been faced by other independent journalists who for the first time in a long time have been respectfully approached by government officials begging them for the sake of Venezuela and not necessarily the regime, how they handle the news.

The situation of the patient is serious and delicate but even the ‘un reachable will done in Cuba to improve his condition and have him again leading”. But adds Bocaranda this time all the miracles invoked by President Chavez in the last 17 months could be insufficient to help him out of his deteriorating condition.

The abuse of morphine to contain pelvic pains and steroids to shape him up during the electoral campaign have caught up and Chavez has developed what is described in medical terms as ‘organic resistance’ to these components. Furthermore apparently the president has his crotch lacerated because of the continuous radiation to which he was exposed. In Cuba the diagnosis is described as “aggressive dermatologic development”.

“Yes, we can see him on the screen either live or pre-recorded, but never as the hardened battler who as he use to say had won battle after battle with his ‘charisma full of hope for the masses’”.

Bocaranda concludes hoping Chavez condition improves and returns recovered to take office from 2013 to 2019, a period in which the president will harvest what was sown in the last fourteen years.

“A very poor crop because planters such as Jorge Giordani, Elías Jaua, Loyo and another hundred ministers who in all these years tried to resuscitate the old, obsolete and failed Soviet communism model, dead in the world for years. We will need the recovered strong caudillo to address these challenges. Our wishes are for his quickest recovery possible”.

Bocaranda as can be seen is clearly playing the ‘prudence’ card suggested to him by the Bolivarian administration, but at the same time was careful not to mention a word about Vice president and Foreign minister Nicolas Maduro, who outstands as the successor if the disease finally defeats Chavez.