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Friday, July 01, 2011

And so serious rumors were right all along, Chavez has cancer

Before I enter into this post I must stress that I would never wish cancer on anyone, and that I want Hugo alive and well so some day he can face a court of justice for all the crimes he has committed.  This being said, his video tonight:

I am not going to start more speculation waves but there are a few details I do not like about that video.

First, the delivery. This was a stilted announcement that was read by Chavez, the first time I can remember him reading from a piece of paper. Coming from him who makes fun of people who prefer to read prepared statements, him the great improvisor never at a loss for words, it can mean only one of two things: he is really sick and was propped for that speech made short and sort of direct; or he did not write the speech at all and somehow was coaxed into reading it. For me it is yet more evidence that we are a Cuban colony

The second thing is that the time frame does not coincides with what the regime would have liked us to believe, that it all happened in Havana (and stayed in Havana?).  Chavez claims that it was AFTER the first surgery that they finally detected cancerous cells. Significantly after.  If we let logic carry the day that means that indeed his "knee" incident was the first surgery and that he went to Havana for the second one.  Why can't Chavez tell the whole truth and get over with it?  After all, not even myself would begrudge him his wishes to go to Havana for his second surgery and treatment to feel safer and away from paparazzi and the troubles of the country.

Which leads us into the third segment, the things that are left out and that now matter terribly.  Which cancer?  What prognosis?  as the president of Venezuela Chaevz owes it to us to inform accurately on all that ails him so that we know as soon as possible whether he will be running for reelection.  Not that it matters in a way, but it is such basic courtesy to allow the PSUV to start picking its successor....  From his looks we know that it is a bad one, likely prostate or colon, with all the physical limitations that those imply from permanent drains to colostomy bags.

What I am afraid of is that all political decisions are made to transform Chavez into some hero.  That they might not be the best decision is a point up for discussion but I have that negative vibe that what is best for Venezuela is really not what matters right now.  In fact, I have the sorry impression that decisions are not even taken into the beast health interests of Chavez....  Who takes them?

33 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:59 AM

    From the link http://www.lapatilla.com/site/2011/06/30/este-es-el-texto-completo-leido-por-el-presidente-chavez-en-cadena/

    Al concluir la intervención de Chávez, varios dirigentes del gobierno bolivariano -encabezados por el vicepresidente Elías Jaua- se han dirigido al pueblo venezolano instándolo “a unirse más que nunca para hacer realidad todos los anhelos de su presidente”.

    And there, you have exactly what is wrong about the Chavez government in a single sentence: According to them, the whole purpose, function and reason to live of every Venezuelan should be to make all the president's dreams come true. Don't you dare think that it should be the other way around and that the whole purpose of the government is to make the people's dreams come true. That's evil, capitalistic, pitiyankee, imperialistic thinking.

    Your whole purpose in this life is to make Chavez happy. Period.

    Crap, these people are sick. Literally, sick.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous9:45 AM

    “Quien mata a hierro no puede morir a sombrerazos” – Para muestra, un botón: Luis Tascon, William Lara, Lina Ron… ahora Chávez – Poco a poco la robolución “sin corazón partío, va desmembrándose… Ya es hora de que los venezolanos comiencen a respirar.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chavez has lost his energy and his spirit.


    A group of people can attempt to turn him into a hero/martyr if they so wish.Most people in Venezuela do not and will not honor that.

    There are groups and strong individuals behind Chavez.They have powerful monetary interests, and some are supporters of world wide crime( drugs).Then there are the worldwide socialists among which there are those who see and saw Chavez as expedient.

    It's important for the opposition to stop repeating these endless memes, anachronistic and meaningless phrases to explain reality.

    It is not a matter of wanting or not wanting his death.It is a matter of seeing that his loss of power brings an opening( as shock or turning point) upon which one could compare:

    the rising of the sun after a long dark night.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1:45 PM

    Hehe, funny thing. I complained about the same in Quico's blog. Yes, the guy has cancer, but what's next? Is his condition deadly? What kind of treatment will he get? Will it debilitating or not? How long will he stay in Cuba? Can he be treated in Caracas? What about the government? Will he remain capable til '12?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree, Firepigette. He couldl lose his intensity. We'll see. Steve Jobs keeps going, but he has capable people in place.

    ReplyDelete
  6. True Colors


    They thought he had a heart,
    a voice,
    And angry arms.
    They thought he painted enough
    To light up his whole country.

    But now they watch for signs;
    Like the ghostly sounds of drum beats
    or smoke signals,
    or the imprints of shaman warriors
    arising through the misty cracks
    in our story

    The blackness of the karma sky
    Let’s us watch;
    While it rids the clouds of rain
    And lightening, and
    Of wind, like wrathful torrents
    down upon our impediments.

    ReplyDelete
  7. extorres2:36 PM

    Seems to me that they want to avoid as best as possible record of a decrepit or speech-impaired chavez. This video was the result of their best effort at making the announcement while complying with that goal. I predict we'll be seeing and hearing very little of/from him.

    --

    ReplyDelete
  8. extorres, yes, did you notice the left side of Chavez's mouth?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous3:23 PM

    Maybe he is starting to smell the sulphur.

    ReplyDelete
  10. RabbiBulla3:26 PM

    Firepigette, I just hope this momentary lapse allowed a few people to wake up. All to soon, the nightmare will continue..
    It is good to dream it's over, I
    will believe it when I see it-ie.
    it's over...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Daniel, since you are so good making comparisons, please take alook at Castro's Speech after "His Operations" and Chavez version yesterday, to me (my primary language is Spanish) the descriptive way it was wrote, and the words used, are coming from Castro, or castro's favorite speech writer, (remember castro is being reading speeched for the past decade.) if you are used to spanish you can pick that up in a second, those are not chavez words, not even back when he came back from 11A, or from 4F. or from the video in la Orchila. this is just an interesting point, because the way I see it, Castro's elite is now in charge of Venezuela.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous4:04 PM

    I'm with Beto,
    one of the first thing I notice was the wording used.

    I thought, Fidel wrote or dictated this speech, or a Cuban wrote it..this is not chavez's nor a venezuelan way of expressing his/herself.

    Correfoc

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous4:08 PM

    The other day Celia Flores made a coment about Cuba having the best doctors and hospitals in the world and that Chavez was in good hands,hehehe,what a bunch of crap,i am a cuban/american and i have been back when my mother was ill,and what i experience there was the worst of medicine and care ,i have no words for it but bullcrap,cuban hospitals for the people usualy have no water,electricity,bad doctors,old hospitals that are about to colapse,no medicines at all,filth and crap everywere,beds full of blood and human feces,nothing works and the service is pathetic and inhuman,i wonder if that lady is actualy been to a hospital there for the people ,probably not,any way Venezuela hopefully will have a future without the paracaidista and i hope he takes the monster of Biran on the trip to hell.Than you Daniel for your blog i reed you all the time or should i say everyday.Felix.

    ReplyDelete
  14. RabbiBulla4:20 PM

    "I want Hugo alive and well so some day he can face a court of justice for all the crimes he has committed."-Yes. 100%-that is the goal. And-it should still be the goal for Fidel Castro as well(-it seems that after Fidel's illness-all is forgotten)
    Maru Angarita constantly posts "we ask for the aid of the International Criminal Court and everyone to aid the Venezuelan people against the crimes of Hugo Chavez"-she remains focused.
    Regardless if Chavez has a tumor the size of a basketball or the size of a pea,(or no cancer at all) the Court awaits...We pray for truth and justice.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Correfoc,

    I noticed something like a speech impediment as well...and wonder where it is coming from....sometimes I have seen this kind of marble mouth from sleep medications,or alcohol....but still there is something slightly more weird even than that, that I am trying to place in my life experiences, and so far come up with nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous5:35 PM

    firepigette,
    indeed, his speech was also affected. I believe is all the medicine they had to give him, knowing his personality, can you imagine what it took for him to READ, and be short, less than 15min?
    toda una Proeza!!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous5:45 PM

    "I would never wish cancer on anyone"

    I used to think like that, but then Chavez came along.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Something curious yet strangely telling:

    Usually a country's bonds will go down when faced with uncertainty created by a gravely ill leader and confusion about possible successors.Tellingly this morning in this case the opposite happened: Venezuelan bonds went up after Chavez's declaration.So they prefer the uncertainty of not knowing what might happen than the certainty that Chavez would stay in charge.

    ReplyDelete
  19. RabbiBulla6:31 PM

    "We will live and we will conquer. Until my return!" Chavez said Thursday night.
    Until his return -please take this opportunity to help awaken as many as possible.
    So many are swooning over the suffering of their "hero"-this is the image "they want to present"-I still believe it is all scripted-even if the cancer is real.

    ReplyDelete
  20. firepigette,

    The speech impediment is due to the Morphine, it is standard to shoot someone with small doses after a big operation like the one he had.

    @ Felix, I’m with you, im’ also Cuban, I live in Miami..! Came here when I was 20. im 40 now.. Cuba's medicine is not that good, granted, he probably have very good equipment and doctors around, and they do have an advantage, while in Europe and US all drugs need to be tested over end over in rigorous cycles, too get approval, Castro's guinea pig's island need “no FDA approval”, so they test on "Real Humans" everything they can think of, so even if I admit it is totally immoral it is a clear advantage of the medicine in Cuba, if you want to call it that way. Like I always say to my Venezuelan’s friends on the Oppo, you can't play American Football with baseball rules cause they will smash you. That is what happens in Cuba and Venezuela, they tell the world the play Baseball, but in reality they use American Football rules.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Related to my Speech issue reference before:

    Extracted from Castro’s speech back when he was giving his: (Notice typical chronological account of things, this is typical Castro. Also offering irrelevant specifics like the 80K reference.

    "No fue una sola operación sino varias. Inicialmente no hubo éxito, y esto incidió en la prolongada recuperación (...). Les digo a todos simplemente que he ido mejorando y mantengo un peso estable, alrededor de los 80 kilogramos"

    See this one: (any similarity to Chavez speech??)

    "Hoy recibo por vía oral todo lo que requiere mi recuperación. Ningún peligro es mayor que los relacionados con la edad y una salud de la cual abusé en los tiempos azarosos que me correspondió vivir"

    And again here:

    “tendido en aquella cama, sólo miraba a mi alrededor, ignorante de todos esos aparatos. No sabía cuánto tiempo iba a durar ese tormento y de lo único que tenía esperanza era de que se parara el mundo”
    Talk about throwing his ministers under the Bus.?? Same here, they lies during months about Castro, but well in Cuba that is the norm. However he came like a Phoenix from under the rubble to tell us the truth:

    "Dependí durante muchos meses de venas tomadas y catéteres por los cuales recibía una parte importante de los alimentos, y no deseaba desagradables desengaños para nuestro pueblo",

    PD: I could only find the quotes in Spanish, in any case you won’t understand the style similarities if this is translated any ways.

    ReplyDelete
  22. come on guys this is another reality show from this jackas, all this show is because elections are coming up now and the country is a complete disaster, what this guy is looking for is compasion from the venezuelans, beacuse in the next election he's gone!! sick!! what a joke !! cancer !! what a joke!! he wants to be a martil that's all!!

    Sal

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    Compra Casa en Miami a precios nunca vistos

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    Sirve o no Sirve Movilnet opine aca

    ReplyDelete
  23. "Before I enter into this post I must stress that I would never wish cancer on anyone, and that I want Hugo alive and well so some day he can face a court of justice for all the crimes he has committed."

    You don't wish cancer on anyone, well that's relative, a good ethical principle for sure. However, isn't it a good thing that Bin Laden got a well-deserved bullet between the eyes?

    Along the same lines, since lightening struck on Chavez, shouldn't we be hopeful that he would die, yes, pass away, as soon as possible? Considering the hundreds and hundreds of people he has killed, indirectly or not? Considering the misery of millions of innocent people suffering under his cruel dictatorship? Ask any Cuban, 90% wish Fidel had Died decades ago.

    So am not going to play Mr. nice humanitarian guy here, hypocritically. For millions of people's sakes, and their very lives (inseguridad en venezuela, 30 muertos diarios, or whatever.. etc, etc) : I hope Chavez is out of this Planet as soon as possible. A fatal plane crash would have been less melodramatic, but the sooner he's GONE, the better for Millions and millions of people worldwide.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Unfortunately, sometimes, the only way to cure a cancer is to extirpate it: kill it. Even if many other good cells around it may suffer. (In this case, the cancer is Chavez. His family and friends, All of them are probably not thieves and evil doers, some of them are probably decent people who would suffer if Thugo dies soon.)

    Unfortunately, this extremely detrimental Dictator, Evil Thug and Criminal won't step down. Just like his hero Castro, and many megalomaniac rulers in history. He just won't go away, and will use every trick, cheat, lie or even military force to stay in power as long as he lives. Like Castro has.

    Meanwhile, countless people worldwide suffer dire consecuences every day. Not just Venezuelan's getting robbed and killed every minute for a pair of shoes or kidnapped for a few hundred bucks, not just the poor and hungry, without homes or roads or decent healthcare. Also millions of people from other "allied" countries who are suffering and dying every day partly because of Chavez's monetary support.

    So when you do the math, what's the best thing that can happen? Chavez, the head of the snake, and his buddy Castro, out of planet Earth, tomorrow if possible.

    Venezuela is different yet similar to Cuba. Still, when Castro dies, things will slowly improve there, even with Raul and the other thugs in power left. They don't have the strength, perseverance, charisma or wicked convictions of the head snake. In Venezuela, the dichotomy would be even faster when Chavez is GONE. No one has nearly the same charisma, perseverance, force that he has. His party of bribed thugs, friends, family and corrupt ministers would collapse rather abruptly, IMO. The opposition would get better organized and stronger.

    Historically this has happened with numerous empires, dictatorships, from the Romans to the Egyptians to Franco's Spain, to Peron, to African countries nowadays. When the top dog dies, or is toppled, stuff starts to collapse. Especially if the successors aren't nearly as strong or astute or charismatic in handling power.

    So yes,for the sake of millions of people, I'm glad to hear Thugo Chabruto has serious health problems. The sooner he's dead, the less innocent people will die and suffer. Il faut pas deconner avec ces grands salopards..

    ReplyDelete
  25. Finally, about these ruthless, criminal dictators being "judged" after they step down or are forced to go.. justice simply does not prevail the vast majority of times, the punishment doesn't fit the crime, not even close, IF and when they are caught and sentenced.

    A few quick examples, at the drop of a hat: In Venezuela, what happened to CAP? Not much, and he was a very "nice guy" compared to Thugo. In Peru, they got Fujimori, also much less of a criminal than Chavez, who did some good things, not a "communist",, he's just getting a few years behind bars, and his daughter almost won the presidency to bail him out.

    Saddam? He got off easy. Being fed in some jail with TV and good meals. He should spend the rest of his days being tortured in some Medieval Turkish dungeon.. Torrijos and many, many other bloody dictators never got caught, Noriega had to be kicked-out by the US, and is now having a nice life behind bars, hardly any commensurable punishment for his heinous crimes and corruption.

    You guys have better memories, you probably can think of a dozen more examples of criminal thugs in power escaping Justice and a fair punishment, IF they got caught alive or decided to leave. And that usually happens after WAYYYY too many years of horrible regimes, with people dying and suffering, and the country regressing with virtually irreparable damage, like Venezuela.

    Who can trust the justice system in Venezuela anyway? Didn't Chavez get out after a bloody coup-d'etat?

    I like the Bin Laden solution much better.

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  26. You don't wish cancer on anybody. But this act of God (if you believe in Him) has changed things forever in Venezuela. It is clear to me that Chavez is seriously ill and is no longer a candidate for dictator for life. That frightful possibility has been replaced by something almost as bad; an uncertainty so dense in complexity that it beggars any attempt at prediction. What sort of monster has been created in these last twelve years that is suddenly going to be revealed in all its nakedness if he is forced to leave the scene? Is it going to be class warfare and some kind of descent into a Colombian-style civil conflict between rival militias? Or will the Venezuelan people be able somehow to retain that civility that up until now has enabled them to avoid the fate of some of their neighbors, and resolve their problems peacefully, largely without bloodshed? My guess is that at some point, either now or in the near future, the military is going to step in and take over the reins of transition, just as happened in Egypt. They have never ceased to be the ultimate guarantors of power in Venezuela. But just where is the military politically in this case and in these days? I have no idea of the answer to this question, and would be glad to hear from anyone who does

    ReplyDelete
  27. RabbiBulla2:59 AM

    Now is the time for the military to stand up and order all Cuban military out of Venezuela. Order all Iranian "advisors/military out.Order all Russian military out.
    Every government position filled by FARC and ETA should be emptied and filled with a Venezuelan who supports the Constitution.
    Can everyone agree to hold a peaceful rally in the streets-of Caracas and demand the whole government step down NOW-is this soon enough. NOW. Everyone wake up and get this over with NOW!!!

    ReplyDelete
  28. RabbiBulla3:09 AM

    Furthermore, when Venezuela "frees itself"-next, go and FREE Cuba, please. WOuldn't that be great- use the weapons bought by Chavez to free Cuba!!!That IS "poetic justice"And- build a Venezuelan prison next to Guantanamo- for Venezuelan Chavistas-esp. their hero in Cellblock#1.

    ReplyDelete
  29. 1979 Boat People5:57 AM

    @Felix and BETO

    Michael Moore would be very ANGRY if he read your comments.:)

    ReplyDelete
  30. Alerte, I arree with you. I don't wish cáncer on Chavez until I start to think about Franklyn Brito and the way he died. Should anyone else in Venezuela have to die like him?

    Martin: this increases the chances that Chavez will control Venezuela for the rest of his life (3-6 months longer?)

    Dan

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  31. olivia kroth9:12 AM

    Le blog d' un imbécile francais au Vénézuéla ?

    Bon dieu !

    ReplyDelete
  32. et une pétasse de française qui n'y connait rien mais qui répond quand même...

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  33. I don't wish cancer on him either, however if he was struck and killed by a bus full of his supporter, I would enjoy the irony.

    ReplyDelete

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