When a thousand words may be better than a picture: Chavez in bed

UPDATED 1 and 2
What to do with the proof of life the regime offered today?

Smiling reading Granma?  Must be the comics page.....

So apparently Chavez is alive. The husband of one of the two girls above, also minister of science and technology for which he has, as far as I know no qualifications other than talk show host on state TV, brought them back from Havana. The Granma is of Thursday 14 February, according to Spain's ABC (I could not open the Granma page to check out myself).

So many things are wrong with that picture and the announcement of Arreaza today in cadena that it inspired me for the title: maybe they would have been better off not showing these pictures.


Let's start with the picture that I picked up to put above. Why read Granma? Are they so Cuban controlled that in spite of an aerial bridge between Havana and Caracas they could not have brought, say, a VEA, or even an Ultimas Noticias, the newspaper more read by chavistas? Who'd have cared if it had been a day or two older...

Now, the patient. Well, he certainly is alive but he is bloated beyond recognition (and I picked the one he looks best!). We certainly can see for ourselves that the guy is barely alive. And probably wears make up for these pictures. As for his general fitness that he needs a neck pillow to lift his head, well.......

Without having heard the cadena (I am at work, after all, not always worrying about Chavez) just from these pictures I know that the man is unable to rule the country, to make important decisions and all that the regime has done these past few weeks is probably without his knowledge or authorization (though it is quite likely he will give it post facto). Though I suppose that since he can hold a newspaper he may be able to sign a few papers, though I bet you not with the firm red ink signature that Maduro and Giordani have shown on TV....

I did not see the cadena where Villegas (and Arreaza?) talked, but there is enough already up in the net to understand that the cadena really did not help much the chavista cause. They admitted that indeed Chavez has suffered a tracheotomy and that he can barely speak, which contradicts many of the statements of previous weeks with a Chavez joking and giving orders....  Amen of recognizing that some of the "medical conspiracy rumors" were true, after all.

Clearly the pressure, international or local (like the students protests of yesterday), have finally forced the regime to start fessing up. And yet the only thing we can say for sure today is that indeed Chavez is not quite dead yet and he is not quite ready to return alive yet. Reviewing my electoral post of yesterday, now it seems that there will be no elections until June at the earliest and that the precipitated devaluation had no other objective but to give some extra cash, in bolivares, to the regime to pay internal debt and keep people happy. And, why not, they may still think he will come back healed....

PS: for kicks go to #Chavezing on Twitter to see personal interpretations of the picture of Chavez reading Granma today....

Update 1: gee, minutes after I posted....

There is already a flurry of stuff in tweeter about those pictures being fake, and even Island reader already chimed on that.

I will advance that
1) already in this entry my comments indicate that the pictures look quite bad by themselves so in a way there is no need to worry about how fake they are: they are a disservice to chavismo;
2) there are more than one pictures; falsifying a series of pictures is not done in general because it simply gives more chance for the fraud to be detected; and
3) as for the bloatedness of Chavez. I am no doctor but that Chavez lost x pounds does not mean that in a couple of weeks he may not get bloated again. Gaining weight is gaining muscle and fat, being bloated with water retention can give you a few pounds in a few days just through electrolytes in your veins.... Granted, it adds to the doubt on the pictures but it is not enough by itself. After all, the weight loss was a rumor, a good one maybe but a rumor nevertheless.

My usual advice: conspiracy theories flow freely around Chavez but there is no need to take all of them at face value. Let's wait and let the professionals take a look at these pictures which they surely will do shortly.

Update 2: well, I do not know how much the staging cost but it seems that the little happening today backfired. A lot of people are not impressed, doubt the truthfulness of the picture for very valid reasons, doubt even more the accompanying comments.  In short, it reeks of improvised counter-counter-propaganda.  The lone theme that emerges is that Chavez is clearly unable to rule and that all the tales of Jaua and Maduro joking with Chavez and dealing with matters of state are simply untrue. You cannot decide properly the devaluation of a country when you need a head cushion to look and listen at your interlocutor.

Fail.