Rafael Marquina the Venezuelan doctor who is famous for giving precise information in his Twitter on the health condition of President Hugo Chavez, on Monday published additional data revealing probably what seems the most rational reason for the leader’s return to his home country.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is resting in Caracas military hospital after his Monday early dawn return from Cuba where he spent ten weeks recuperating from cancer surgery. However contrary to other occasions no video or pictures were shown and officials confirmed he has a tracheal tube which limits speech.
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.
Fitch ratings has lowered Argentina, Venezuela and El Salvador credit and growth prospects to negative, while for the rest of Latinamerica the situation remains stable, according to a seminar in Frankfort, on “Latinamerica opportunities and challenges”.
The International Monetary Fund, IMF, praised Venezuela for the recent devaluation of its currency saying it is a positive attempt to reduce macroeconomic misbalances but also called on the government of President Hugo Chavez to continue eliminating the exchange rate distortions.
Venezuela devalued its currency for the fifth time in nine years as ailing President Hugo Chavez seeks to narrow a widening fiscal gap and reduce a shortage of dollars in the economy. The new exchange rate falls by 32% to 6.3 Bolivar per dollar starting Feb. 13, Finance Minister Jorge Giordani told reporters in Caracas.
Vice-president Nicolas Maduro, read an eleven page letter he said was written by ailing President Hugo Chavez in which the Venezuelan leader calls for Latinamerican unit, praises Cuba’s chairmanship of CELAC group and takes time to support Argentina’s claims over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands.
Chile confirmed that Paraguay finally decided not to attend the EU/CELAC summit in Chile putting an end to a controversy when it emerged that several Mercosur and Unasur members insisted that the landlocked country should not be invited.
Vice-president Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday that Venezuela is willing to have the ‘best possible relations’ with the US government as long as these are based on respect and equality. He added that it was President Hugo Chavez who instructed the newly named Foreign minister Elias Jaua on the issue.
Uruguay’s economy is poised to grow 4% this year and in 2014, which is above the region’s average, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects issued this week. However Uruguay will be ranked twelfth in the growth ranking of Latinamerica this year but ahead of Brazil and Argentina with 3.4%.