MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cristina Fernandez the only leader allowed to visit Chavez in hospital, but declined

The Argentine president preferred to remember Chavez as the robust leader she knew

Argentine president Cristina Fernandez was the only leader given the option of visiting the ailing Hugo Chavez in hospital but declined, according to Venezuelan independent journalist Nelson Bocaranda who was the first to make public the news, 19 months ago, that the charismatic leader was suffering cancer.

“The Argentine president was the only one allowed to see him given the close relation of Cristina with the daughters of Chavez. Since his daughters attended president Nestor Kichner’s funeral, she was very moved and endeared to them. Cristina had the right to go in and see him with Chavez daughters but she declined because she preferred to keep the image of the Chavez she had known: a robust Chavez and not a frail and sick Chavez”, said Bocaranda who not only broke the news of the disease but has since, and despite the iron clamp on all news surrounding Chavez true health condition, has reported regularly with unquestionable accuracy events and evolution of the disease.

In an interview Bocaranda revealed the evolution of Chavez disease, which he pledged to make public only after either the leader’s full recovery or death.

“In October 2010 he was diagnosed a problem in the bladder and prostate and recommended he kept to a strict agenda which he didn’t. It was only in June 2011 that doctors detect a first abscess in his rectum with complications and diagnose cancer” said Bocaranda.

He was told to rest but to keep the (Bolivarian) revolution going and reach the election and win it, the only objective of his life, and against the will of his family, “he continued with his hectic agenda”.

Bocaranda repeated that when Chavez announced Nicolas Maduro was to be his successor, “he already knew that the end was near, that cancer had advanced too much”, and not only did he have complications extending to the bones and kidneys, “last December he suffered ‘a lungs’ arrest’”.

“His lungs were destroyed. Last week the report said that only 20% capacity was functioning. Chavez was a heavy smoker in private for a long time and only dropped it because Fidel Castro begged him to do so. But one of the lungs was in very bad shape and did not function”, revealed Bocaranda. Despite the government never admitting it “Chavez was agonizing since January”.

In his blog, Bocaranda had revealed other details of President Chavez health condition in recent months.

“Since February 22, disconnecting the patient from the mechanical respiratory assistance was considered given the worsening of his condition and ever so precarious health. There were divergences between Chavez mother and his daughters, overwhelmed by the long suffering of their father and a year and a half via crucis of medical treatments and campaigning. After meetings with (Vice-president Nicolas) Maduro and (the president of the National Assembly Diosdado) Cabello they decided to disconnect him February 5”, said Bocaranda.

Once the decision was taken by the most intimate presidential circle, “at 15:05 the respiratory aid was eliminated so that Chavez could die in peace at 16:25 in his bed at the Military Hospital”.

According to Venezuelan law the right to decide belongs to the wife or the mother and since Chavez was divorced it was the mother, “but finally they reached and agreement”.

Bocaranda also gave details of the final funeral ceremonies to take place on Friday.

“Chavez has asked his family that there was to be three days of mourning (as has been implemented) so the people could see him for the last time and then buried in his hometown of Sabaneta, state of Barinas, in his grandmother’s plot”.

For this purpose and since early last year it was agreed with Minister Farruco Sesto to build a small mausoleum in the chosen place. But this week they realized that it was not concluded and Farruco Sesto, ‘a dedicated boot-licker and ass-kisser’, has now suggested the new Simon Bolivar mausoleum next to the National Pantheon, which has been ready for months and still has not been inaugurated.

“To venerate there at the mausoleum the new Bolivarian hero, a decision yet to be announced”, said Bocaranda who admits he wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t become “a kind of Lenin of Ho Chi Minh shrine” and discarded the idea of taking the remains of Chavez to Barinas.

“The military saw this as dangerous because of the manifestations, the spontaneous activists and a general even was concerned the coffin could be stolen. With the presidential figure of Chavez turned into a religious amulet, such a situation could in effect happen linked to the sects and beliefs that have emerged recently based on the presidential media programs and visits of last year”, concluded Bocaranda.