Where is Chavez ?

QueEx · Jun 25, 2011

<font size="5"><center>
Chávez ailing? </font size><font size="4">
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's hospitalization
and subsequent disappearance from public view while
in Cuba have stirred rumors about the seriousness of his illness.</font size></center>

Los Angeles Times
By Mery Mogollon
and Chris Kraul
June 24, 2011

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's hospitalization and subsequent disappearance from public view while in Cuba have stirred rumors about the seriousness of his illness and controversy over whether he should delegate power.

Chávez, 56, has not been seen in public since June 8, when he arrived in Havana. Two days later, he had surgery for a "pelvic abscess" and since then, his government has offered little detail as to the extent of his condition.

His Twitter site carried a message Friday saluting Venezuela's military on a national holiday, though he did not provide any information about his health.

"A big hug to my soldiers and to my beloved people," the message read. "From here, I am with you in the hard work every day."

A telephone call June 12 to a state-run TV station in Caracas was the last public communication from the leader. The Cuban government released a photo of Chávez on June 17 being visited in his hospital room by Fidel and Raul Castro.

Specifics on Chávez's condition have been scarce. Defense Minister Carlos Mata Figueroa said he talks to Chávez every day, and he is "stronger than ever."

But critics such as opposition deputy Américo de Grazia have demanded the government issue a daily medical bulletin. He also said Chávez's treatment in Cuba was an affront to Venezuelan doctors.

De Grazia and others have called for Chávez to temporarily delegate powers to Vice President Elías Jaua, citing an article of the constitution that requires presidents to transfer power in case of a "temporary absence."

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro countered that Congress' approval of Chávez's trip, which included stops in Brazil and Ecuador before Cuba, is all the authorization he needs to continue governing from abroad.

During the June 12 telephone call, Chávez said he couldn't say with "mathematical certainty" when he would return to Venezuela.

<font size="3"><center>
The opposition media are full of <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">speculation on whether
Chávez has a life-threatening disease such as cancer, [or]
even whether he is still alive</span>. </font size></center>

Cynthia Arnson of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington said the unsettled situation is a result of Chávez's "unwillingness to share information."

Javier Corrales, an Amherst College political scientist who specializes in Venezuela, said the real issue is the "nonchalance" of Chavez's party, the PSUV.

<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">"The ruling party is either hiding something major, or is instead revealing something embarrassing: the extent to which it has become the mere appendage of one man</span>."

Special correspondent Mery Mogollon reported from Caracas, and Chris Kraul from Bogotá, Colombia.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015419842_chavez25.html

Diomedes3000 · Jun 26, 2011

He shouldn't let on how sick he really is. No politicians do that especially one who has as many enemies as Chavez :yes:

. It's lucky Cuba is an option because they have some of the best medical care in the world. I wonder when he will come back, he had better not stay away too long. The CIA will instigate a Coup before he knows it in fact they are probably working on it right now. :yes:

QueEx · Jun 27, 2011

QueEx · Jun 28, 2011

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s
brother talks of armed struggle

As speculation about Hugo Chávez’s health mounts, his brother
mentions the possibility of arms being used to retain power.

CARACAS, -- Venezuela – With Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez incommunicado and reportedly convalescing in Cuba, his brother told an audience that <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">both arms and the ballot box could be used for Venezuela’s ruling party to retain power</span>.

“As authentic revolutionaries, we cannot forget other forms of fighting,’’ Adán Chávez said at a prayer meeting in Barinas, Venezuela, that was devoted to the health of his 56-year-old brother, who grew up there.

Quoting Latin American revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, he added: “It would be inexcusable to limit ourselves to only the electoral and not see other forms of struggle, including the armed struggle.”

Adán Chávez, a mild-mannered former university physics professor who has a close relationship with the president while maintaining a low profile, did not explain why it might be necessary for the president’s backers to consider the possibility of guerrilla warfare in the future, and the statement seemed to clash with Hugo Chávez’s own assertions.

The comments came during a day of intense speculation that the leader may be gravely ill after reportedly undergoing emergency surgery 16 days ago.

FULL STORY

BlackWolf · Jun 28, 2011

Diomedes3000 said:
He shouldn't let on how sick he really is. No politicians do that especially one who has as many enemies as Chavez . It's lucky Cuba is an option because they have some of the best medical care in the world. I wonder when he will come back, he had better not stay away too long. The CIA will instigate a Coup before he knows it in fact they are probably working on it right now.

It's so good that when Castro got cancer, they had to fly in equipment and a doctor from Spain to treat him.

Diomedes3000 · Jun 28, 2011

wewanttoplay said:
It's so good that when Castro got cancer, they had to fly in equipment and a doctor from Spain to treat him.

Link or I'm calling bullshit

BlackWolf · Jun 29, 2011

December 25, 2006
Spanish Doctor Is Said to Be Aiding Castro By REUTERS
MADRID, Dec. 24 (Reuters) — A renowned Spanish surgeon has been flown to Cuba to try to stop a steady deterioration in President Fidel Castro’s health, a Spanish newspaper reported Sunday.

The surgeon, José Luis García Sabrido, an intestinal specialist, traveled to Cuba on Thursday on an aircraft chartered by the Cuban government, said the left-leaning newspaper, El Periódico de Catalunya.

Dr. García Sabrido was to carry out tests on Mr. Castro to see if he needed another operation after he underwent emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding in July, the newspaper said, citing hospital sources.

The doctor’s plane carried advanced medical equipment not available in Cuba, the paper reported.

Dr. García Sabrido was among doctors who presented their work at a surgery conference in Havana last month, according to the conference’s Web site.

Cuban officials say Mr. Castro is not dying and is expected to return to public life. But he has skipped recent public appearances, including his 80th birthday celebration, and appeared to be frail and walking with difficulty in video images released in October.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/25/world/americas/25cuba.html?ref=americas&pagewanted=print

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6208451.stm

BlackWolf · Jun 30, 2011

Diomedes3000 said:
Link or I'm calling bullshit

No comment?

QueEx · Jul 3, 2011

Post Surgery Photos - Hugo Chavez

"Chavez was clad in sports clothes and looked thinner than usual in pictures re-
leased in Cuba (AFP/File), July 3, 2011"; excerpted from French news source AFP: http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.c45b1499618bdfc8c2602868ded684ec.761

_____________________________

** Chavez with his doctors and Chancellor Nicolas Maduro, on the right

** Chavez with his daughters, Maria Gabriela and Rosa Virginia

** = the source for the pictures (http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/07/02/fotos-chavez-ejercicios-rehabilitacion-cuba/) is in Spanish; the english captions under the pics above are my translations and not necessarily the best!

`

(I know, somebody is going to post an interesting comment regarding the daughters) LOL.

Diomedes3000 · Jul 3, 2011

wewanttoplay said:
No comment?

I read it but that doesn't mean Cuba does not have a really good medical system. Obviously the guy is a specialist and the equipment they flew in is not available in Cuba that could be do to many factors, Embargo lack of money etc. On a whole they have great Dr's and the population is very healthy. Castro is a pretty old and his needs could not be met. That being said on the flip side the care in Cuba was good enough for the president of Venezuela :yes:

. Cuba does have a good health care system take away embargo's and things and it would be even better. They may not have the most up to date equipment but they are very skilled and don't have equipment to bail them out all the time thus they rely on skill and are very hands on.

BlackWolf · Jul 3, 2011

First you call bullshit now you making excuses. Bottom line, if the leader of your country has to have a doctor flown in to treat him, what does that say about your health system. And having Chavez being treated in Cuba does not impress me, hell what does that say about him and all that oil money. What the fuck is he doing with it?

Diomedes3000 · Jul 3, 2011

wewanttoplay said:
First you call bullshit now you making excuses. Bottom line, if the leader of your country has to have a doctor flown in to treat him, what does that say about your health system. And having Chavez being treated in Cuba does not impress me, hell what does that say about him and all that oil money. What the fuck is he doing with it?

You were right about the Dr from Spain. That does not make the Health system weak. Cuba is a small country. If Castro could be saved you save him he's the leader of the country. The fact remains Chavez came to Cuba to get treated it must not be to shabby. You know Cuba is isolated economically and basically blacklisted. Who knows what Chavez is doing with the oil money. Hopefully he puts it into developing better medical schools

.

Diomedes3000 · Jul 3, 2011

QueEx said:
** Chavez with his daughters, Maria Gabriela and Rosa Virginia

** = the source for the pictures (http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2011/07/02/fotos-chavez-ejercicios-rehabilitacion-cuba/) is in Spanish; the english captions under the pics above are my translations and not necessarily the best!

(I know, somebody is going to post an interesting comment regarding the daughters) LOL.

his daughters are thick as hell :yes:

Azz and titties busting out of sweat pants

. We may have to post this on the main board :yes:

QueEx · Jul 4, 2011

BlackWolf · Jul 15, 2011

Chavez to return to Cuba for cancer treatment

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Friday that he will return to Cuba to begin a new phase of cancer treatment that will include chemotherapy.

Chavez said he was seeking legislative approval to go back to Havana on Saturday "to begin what we've called the second phase."

He said he was sending a letter to the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Fernando Soto Rojas, to request immediate "legislative authorization" for his trip as required by the constitution. It was not clear how long Chavez planned to remain in Cuba.

The 56-year-old's cancer diagnosis has thrown uncertainty into Venezuela's political landscape during the past two weeks. Chavez, who has held dominant power during more than 12 years in office, has assured the country that he is confident he will recover while also saying that a long road to recovery remains.

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor from his pelvic region. He has said the tumor was the size of a baseball, but has not specified where it was located.

He acknowledged on Wednesday for the first time that he expected to eventually undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment, saying such care would be to "armor the body against new malignant cells."

Chavez made his announcement Friday after meeting with Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala at the presidential palace. Humala wished Chavez the best in "this personal battle you are leading."

Chavez spent much of June in Cuba without revealing much about his medical state. On June 30, he announced on television that doctors had removed the tumor in the second of two surgeries.

He made a surprise return to Caracas on July 4 and rallied thousands of supporters from the presidential palace that afternoon. He arrived as Venezuela was celebrating the bicentennial of its declaration of independence from Spain.

During the past two weeks, Chavez's Twitter account has posted a flurry of messages commenting on everything from the Venezuelan soccer team's performance to a concert led by Venezuelan-born conductor Gustavo Dudamel. He's also appeared on television leading a Cabinet meeting, addressing troops and attending Mass. He has sought to project confidence, often telling supporters: "We will live!"

His revelation of his trip to Cuba came after reports from Brazil said the Venezuelan leader could undergo his next round of treatment at the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo, which is considered one of the best hospitals in South America.

As they began their meeting at the presidential palace, Humala told Chavez: "Count on our prayers."

"You still have to fulfill a mission with your people as president," Humala said before they walked into the palace together.

Chavez has kept up near-daily public remarks in the past week while shortening the length of his televised speeches, saying he is under strict doctors' orders. He has abandoned his usual late-night speeches, though on Thursday he spoke to a crowd of supporters and led a Cabinet meeting.

Chavez told state television Friday that while recovering from surgery, he has been waking up at 5 a.m. and reading German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He said he has also taken up painting again and has been creating a landscape from one of the windows of the presidential palace.

"I know there are people who are happy because they believe I'm dying, that I'm going to die soon," Chavez said. "But those evil wishes are part of that hatred ... that is erased like a tsunami of love by the blessings and prayers of a nation, of millions."

___

Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/chavez-return-cuba-cancer-treatment-223642223.html

BlackWolf · Jul 15, 2011

Chavez to return to Cuba for cancer treatment

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Friday that he will return to Cuba to begin a new phase of cancer treatment that will include chemotherapy.

Chavez said he was seeking legislative approval to go back to Havana on Saturday "to begin what we've called the second phase."

He said he was sending a letter to the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Fernando Soto Rojas, to request immediate "legislative authorization" for his trip as required by the constitution. It was not clear how long Chavez planned to remain in Cuba.

The 56-year-old's cancer diagnosis has thrown uncertainty into Venezuela's political landscape during the past two weeks. Chavez, who has held dominant power during more than 12 years in office, has assured the country that he is confident he will recover while also saying that a long road to recovery remains.

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor from his pelvic region. He has said the tumor was the size of a baseball, but has not specified where it was located.

He acknowledged on Wednesday for the first time that he expected to eventually undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment, saying such care would be to "armor the body against new malignant cells."

Chavez made his announcement Friday after meeting with Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala at the presidential palace. Humala wished Chavez the best in "this personal battle you are leading."

Chavez spent much of June in Cuba without revealing much about his medical state. On June 30, he announced on television that doctors had removed the tumor in the second of two surgeries.

He made a surprise return to Caracas on July 4 and rallied thousands of supporters from the presidential palace that afternoon. He arrived as Venezuela was celebrating the bicentennial of its declaration of independence from Spain.

During the past two weeks, Chavez's Twitter account has posted a flurry of messages commenting on everything from the Venezuelan soccer team's performance to a concert led by Venezuelan-born conductor Gustavo Dudamel. He's also appeared on television leading a Cabinet meeting, addressing troops and attending Mass. He has sought to project confidence, often telling supporters: "We will live!"

His revelation of his trip to Cuba came after reports from Brazil said the Venezuelan leader could undergo his next round of treatment at the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paulo, which is considered one of the best hospitals in South America.

As they began their meeting at the presidential palace, Humala told Chavez: "Count on our prayers."

"You still have to fulfill a mission with your people as president," Humala said before they walked into the palace together.

Chavez has kept up near-daily public remarks in the past week while shortening the length of his televised speeches, saying he is under strict doctors' orders. He has abandoned his usual late-night speeches, though on Thursday he spoke to a crowd of supporters and led a Cabinet meeting.

Chavez told state television Friday that while recovering from surgery, he has been waking up at 5 a.m. and reading German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He said he has also taken up painting again and has been creating a landscape from one of the windows of the presidential palace.

"I know there are people who are happy because they believe I'm dying, that I'm going to die soon," Chavez said. "But those evil wishes are part of that hatred ... that is erased like a tsunami of love by the blessings and prayers of a nation, of millions."

___

Associated Press writer Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/chavez-return-cuba-cancer-treatment-223642223.html

QueEx · Jul 22, 2011

QueEx · Jan 4, 2013

QueEx · Jan 4, 2013

Chavez’s demise would create massive changes in Venezuela’s political scene. During his years in office, he successfully managed to steer the country through many ups and downs, while becoming extremely popular among the middle and lower classes of the society.

However, in the 2012 presidential election, the opposition groups reached a compromise and made an alliance against Chavez, and this led to a significant decrease in the number of votes cast for the incumbent president. Chavez’s deteriorating health encouraged the opposition factions to put aside their differences and to select a single candidate in order to oust him from power. However, the rise to power of the anti-Chavez camp would cause dissatisfaction among the poor and all those who benefited economically from Chavez’s policies. This may lead to unrest in a country that has had a great deal of economic and political instability in its history.

As Chavez’s close confidant, Maduro has taken charge of many presidential duties over the past few years. His conduct and method of leadership is a carbon copy of the president’s, albeit with a difference, since Maduro does not have his mentor’s flair for mobilizing the masses. Chavez’s charismatic personality and his ability to win over millions of Venezuelans through his rhetoric are regarded as the main pillars of his popularity among the people. Maduro should look for similar tools and methods to win the votes of the Chavez supporters. Otherwise, it will not be difficult for the opposition to push him out of office.

Iran-Venezuela relations will experience no significant change if Maduro becomes the next president. But if someone from the rival camp becomes president, there will be problems since the major opposition figures have all declared that reducing the level of ties with Iran is one of their main priorities.

Mansour Moazzami is a faculty member of the Petroleum University of Technology and an expert on Latin America based in Tehran.

SOURCE: http://tehrantimes.com/opinion/104485-venezuela-after-chavez

QueEx · Jan 4, 2013

Re-Elected;
But Not Inaugurated;
Now in Intensive Care;
Can't Hand Over Power;

And the Inauguration is Set January 10, 2013.

According to the Venezuelan government, Hugo Chavez is suffering breathing difficulties caused by a severe lung infection.

Reports have claimed the Socialist leader, who has been in power for 14 years, was being kept alive by life support machines and was in an induced coma in Cuba.

But the Venezuelan government has criticised mounting speculation that Chavez is close to death, which would present constitutional chaos ahead of his scheduled inauguration on January 10.

The Telegraph's Chief Foreign Correspondent David Blair said: "Chavez's collapse comes at the most sensitive possible time.

"If he is incapacitated in a hospital bed in Cuba, he won't be able to go (to the inauguration). But if he's alive he can't hand over to his successor.

SOURCE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...may-cause-political-turmoil-in-Venezuela.html

QueEx · Jan 5, 2013

What Happens if Chavez Doesn't Make His Inauguration?

QueEx · Jan 5, 2013

Hugo Chavez: what happens if he dies?

QueEx · Jan 6, 2013

Hugo Chavez mentor says he doubts ailing
president will rule Venezuela, ever again

Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at a campaign rally on
Thursday, October 4, 2012. | Pedro Portal/El Nuevo Herald/MCT

Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers
January 4, 2013

MEXICO CITY — A former mentor to Hugo Chavez who maintains close contacts with officials in Venezuela said Friday that he doesn’t believe the ailing Venezuelan president will ever leave Cuba to govern his homeland again – and may not even leave a Havana hospital.

Heinz Dieterich, a German sociologist and ideologue who lives in Mexico City, said a succession battle already is playing out within Chavez’s socialist party.

“It’s absolutely illusory to think that the president may return to exercise a post that is so exhausting as leading a country in modern times,” Dieterich said in an interview at his office at a Mexico City university. “It’s not even sure that he will leave that Cuban hospital alive.”

Dieterich, a leftist thinker, invented a slogan he called “Socialism for the 21st Century,” which was adopted by Chavez. The two met in 1999, nurturing a friendship over debates at Miraflores Palace in Caracas. Dieterich never received a salary or occupied a formal post as an adviser to Chavez, and he said he hasn’t spoken to the president since 2005. But he is generally acknowledged to be part of the leftist brain trust around the former army paratroop commander and remains in contact with high-level officials in Venezuela’s government, including current governors and military commanders.

He’s also a frequent visitor to Cuba, where Chavez is hospitalized, fighting a recurring cancer, internal bleeding and a severe lung infection after undergoing his fourth cancer surgery on Dec. 11. With Chavez unseen in public since and officials of his government offering grim assessments of his health, Venezuela’s National Assembly meets Saturday to plot what to do if Chavez cannot be sworn in for a fourth term on Thursday – something analysts say is a near certainty.

Dieterich said he believes that once Chavez passes from the scene, Venezuelans will be led by a more collective form of government, a vast change from Chavez’s domineering tactics that used slang-laced oratory and a showy populist style to win the support of Venezuela’s poor in the years since Chavez took power in 1999.

Chavez’s handpicked successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, doesn’t have the political chops to govern in the same fashion, Dieterich said, but will maintain many of the same policies as Chavez, including full support for Cuba, although he may seek a thaw in chilly relations with Washington.

“Maduro will have to turn over more power to the ministries and to his team,” Dieterich said. “I believe that we will see the politics of a more conventional, bourgeois government of Latin America.”

Maduro faces a rival within the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela but appears to have gotten the upper hand over Diosdado Cabello, a high-profile former army officer who has held numerous posts under Chavez, most recently as the National Assembly president, a position that he may regain on Saturday.

Under one scenario, if Chavez cannot be inaugurated Thursday, Cabello would take over the presidential office and call elections within 30 days.

Cabello last month suggested that Chavez’s inauguration could be postponed, a move that some in his party viewed as a transparent grab for time to elbow out Maduro, who Chavez has made clear should be his successor.

“By exposing himself with this maneuver, he lost a lot of power,” Dieterich said of Cabello. “The armed forces saw that he didn’t want to carry out the express public wishes of the president . . . and they obviously decided to make clear that Chavez’s wishes would prevail.”

Still, Dieterich said, the two men are stuck with each other, unable to rule without the faction represented by the other, even as it is clear that Maduro will run for the presidency under the Chavismo banner.

“The two men have to come together and work together,” he said.

Eventually, he said, Cabello will see his power further erode from times when he handled intelligence and other functions for Chavez.

“People have lost their fear of him. People were afraid of him because he had so much information, and was willing to use it forcefully,” he said. “His capacity to intimidate people in internal debates has been qualitatively reduced.”

Email: tjohnson@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @timjohnson4

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/01/04/179066/hugo-chavez-mentor-says-he-doubts.html#storylink=cpy

QueEx · Mar 6, 2013

Bumped From the Archives -- The Best of Hugo Chavez --

July 28, 1954 - March 5, 2013

Seven days of mourning after president dies in Caracas - The Guardian

The Passing of a Political Tsunami - Fox News

Death Comes for el Comandante: Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) - TIME

Obituary: Hugo Chavez - socialist showman who transformed Venezuela - REUTERS

thoughtone · Mar 10, 2013

source: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

His independence, help for Venezuela's poor will not be forgiven

Venezuela's left-wing populist president Hugo Chávez died on Tuesday, March 5, after a two-year battle with cancer. If world leaders were judged by the sheer volume of corporate media vitriol and misinformation about their policies, Chávez would be in a class of his own.

Shortly after Chávez won his first election in 1998, the U.S. government deemed him a threat to U.S. interests--an image U.S. media eagerly played up. When a coup engineered by Venezuelan business and media elites removed Chávez from power, many leading U.S outlets praised the move (Extra!, 6/02). The New York Times (4/13/02), calling it a "resignation," declared that "Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator." The Chicago Tribune (4/14/02) cheered the removal of a leader who had been "praising Osama bin Laden"--an absurdly false charge.

But that kind of reckless rhetoric was evidently permissible in media discussions about Chávez. Seven years later, CNN (1/15/09) hosted a discussion of Chávez with Democratic strategist Doug Schoen, where he and host John Roberts discussed whether or not Chávez was worse than Osama bin Laden. As Schoen put it, "He's given Al-Qaeda and Hamas an open invitation to come to Caracas."

There were almost no limits to overheated media rhetoric about Chávez. In a single news article, Newsweek (11/2/09) managed to compare him to Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. (Chávez had built a movie studio, which is the sort of thing dictators apparently do.) ABC (World News, 10/7/12) called him a "fierce enemy of the United States," the Washington Post (10/16/06) an “autocratic demagogue." Fox News (12/5/05) said that his government was "really Communism"--despite the fact he was repeatedly returned to office in internationally certified elections (Extra!, 11-12/06) that Jimmy Carter deemed "the best in the world" (Guardian, 10/3/12).

Apart from the overheated claims about terrorism and his growing military threat to the region (FAIR Blog, 4/1/07), media often tried to make a simpler case: Chávez wasn't good for Venezuelans. The supposed economic ruin in Venezuela was a staple of the coverage. The Washington Post editorial page (1/5/13) complained of "the economic pain caused by Mr. Chávez," the man who has "wrecked their once-prosperous country." And a recent New York Times piece (12/13/12) tallied some of the hassles of daily life, declaring that such

frustrations are typical in Venezuela, for rich and poor alike, and yet President Hugo Chávez has managed to stay in office for nearly 14 years, winning over a significant majority of the public with his outsize personality, his free-spending of state resources and his ability to convince Venezuelans that the Socialist revolution he envisions will make their lives better.

Of course, Venezuelans might feel that Chávez already had improved their lives (FAIR Blog, 12/13/12), with poverty cut in half, increased availability of food and healthcare, expanded educational opportunities and a real effort to build grassroots democratic institutions. (For more of this, read Greg Grandin's piece in the Nation--3/5/13.)

Those facts of Venezuelan life were not entirely unacknowledged by U.S. media. But these policies, reflecting new national priorities about who should benefit from the country's oil wealth, were treated as an unscrupulous ploy of Chávez's to curry favor with the poor. As the Washington Post (2/24/13) sneered, Chávez won "unconditional support from the poverty-stricken masses" by "doling out jobs to supporters and showering the poor with gifts." NPR's All Things Considered (3/5/13) told listeners that "millions of Venezuelans loved him because he showered the poor with social programs."

Buying the support of your own citizens is one thing; harboring negative feelings about the United States is something else entirely. As CBS Evening News (1/8/13) recently put it, "Chávez has made a career out of bashing the United States." But one wonders how friendly any U.S. political leaders would be toward a government that had supported their overthrow.

Though this is often treated as another Chávez conspiracy theory--"A central ideological pillar of Chávez's rule over 14 years has been to oppose Republican and Democratic administrations in Washington, which he accuses of trying to destabilize his government," the Washington Post (1/10/13) reported--the record of U.S. support for the coup leaders is clear.

As a State Department report (FAIR Blog, 1/11/13) acknowledged, various U.S. agencies had "provided training, institution building and other support to individuals and organizations understood to be actively involved in the brief ouster of the Chávez government." The Bush administration declared its support for the short-lived coup regime, saying Chávez was "responsible for his fate" (Guardian, 4/21/09).

Of course, as with any country, there are aspects of Chávez's government that could be criticized. U.S. media attention to Venezuela's flaws, however, was obviously in service to an official agenda--as documented by FAIR's study (Extra!, 2/09) of editorials on human rights, which showed Venezuela getting much harsher criticism than the violent repression of the opposition in U.S.-allied Colombia.

In reporting Chávez's death, little had changed. "Venezuela Bully Chávez Is Dead," read the New York Post's front page (3/6/13); "Death of a Demogogue" was on Time's home page (3/6/13). CNN host Anderson Cooper (3/5/13) declared it was "the death of a world leader who made America see red, as in Fidel Castro red, Venezuela's socialist president, Hugo Chávez."

"The words 'Venezuelan strongman' so often preceded his name, and for good reason," declared NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams (3/5/13); on ABC World News (3/5/13), viewers were told that "many Americans viewed him as a dictator." That would be especially true if those Americans consumed corporate media.

The fact that U.S. elite interests are an overarching concern is not exactly hidden. Many reports on Chávez's passing were quick to note the country's oil wealth. NBC's Williams asserted, "All this matters a lot to the U.S., since Venezuela sits on top of a lot of oil and that's how this now gets interesting for the United States." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (3/5/13) concurred: "I mean, Venezuela is a serious country in the world stage. It is sitting on the world's largest proven oil reserves."

And CNN's Barbara Starr (3/5/13) reported: "You're going to see a lot of U.S. businesses keep a very close eye on this transition in Venezuela. They're going to want to know that their investments are secure and that this is a stable country to invest in." Those U.S. businesses would seem to include its media corporations.

Where is Chavez ?

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