(One of the many allegoric images circulated by Chavismo in the last two weeks)
The day Hugo Chavez shouted “Viva Chavez!” during his farewell procession down to the airport to leave for Cuba, you knew he had reached a new level of megalomania and irrationality. And this happens to be important, because it appears as if the genius behind Chavismo manipulation and use of the media was none other than the autocrat himself.
Because ever since Chavez got sick, the quality and the impact of media manipulation by the regime seems to have deteriorated and in the last few weeks has been totally off the mark, at a time that it is most needed.
It all began with the opposition primaries.(Which thanks God took place before Chavez’ relapse that prompted his trip to Cuba.) First Chavismo decided to lower expectations for the vote to ridiculously low levels. When I heard opposition people talking about maybe a million votes in the primary, I knew someone had drunk the Chavista Kool Aid. To me, defeat was a million and a half, even though I did not think three million was doable. But Chavistas really played it down, from saying there would not be a million voters, to suggesting the primary would not even take place. Thus, when three million votes were reached, Chavismo was truly caught leaning the other way, wondering what had happened.
And rather than play it down, Chavismo took the cue from the Generals and began questioning the veracity of the vote, which had been run by the Chavista Electoral Board, which did not like the questioning and went to extremes to defend their integrity. Come on! They can bend the rules, but not for the opposition. But maybe the winds of change are blowing and behind covering is going to become a national sport soon, no?
And just when this was leading the headlines, Chavez decided to reveal he was sick again. Despite his assurances to the faithful that he was cancer-free, not a single cancer cell in his body and ready to live for twenty years, Hugo had known since January that things were not fine.
And Hugo decided to call his tumor a “lesion” (An injury, for those that do not speak Spanish), using that funny doublespeak with respect to his ailment. And according to VP Jaua, the “lesion” was removed, but, how can you remove surgically a “lesion” without creating another one?
Just wondering…
To say nothing of Cabello and Izarra laughing at Bocaranda for telling us Chavez was not only in Cuba, but was going to need an operation soon. As Cabello and Izarra helped prop up Bocaranda’s reputation with their tweets, Chavez went on nationwide TV to tells us they were out of the loop, but Bocaranda, somehow wasn’t. Diosdado must not have been happy.
Then, at some point, it seemed Chavismo was ready to regroup, Chavez appointed a single spokesman for his illness (Spokeswoman actually) Minister of Health Sader. She was due to give us a report on Monday, but Monday came and went and nothing…We have yet to hear from her.
Once again, Chavez is too busy taking care of himself and Minister Sader has been overruled by those that want to show they have power.
Then VP Jaua read some prepared text in the middle of his speech at the National Assembly. He never said who wrote it, but he read it all, down to the “La Habana, Cuba” written at the bottom of the piece of paper he had been given (or ordered) to read.
And while we are still waiting for the person Chavez anointed to be the spokeswoman for the illness, the Minister for Communes (Of all people) tells us that the Government is being clear and transparent and that VP Jaua is the only spokesperson for the illness and, of course, blames the media for the confusion.
Who authorized her to say anything?
Meanwhile, all we know is that Chavez is in “good physical shape”, but we guess that Jaua or anyone, would have said that before the “procedure” that Chavez underwent in Havana. As to the”procedure”, it must have been rather simple, it took after all, only an hour and half, barely time to open and take a look, let alone to take a tumor or a “lesion” or even a hemorrhoid out.
So, we still don’t know, but the secrecy speaks louder than words. Things have barely changed since last summer. The predictions of Navarrete are behind schedule by maybe one only month. The country’s bonds have soared day after day, as if someone knows something about the upcoming and inevitable political change.
And Chavismo can do little to change the feeling that somethings is not right. Their leader is not around and he clearly played a definitive role in setting the stage and the discussion.
No more.
As for yours truly, I have not changed my predictions. To those that read the comments, I said long ago my late April birthday was a key time reference. I will continue to stick my neck out with that. Now more than ever. Worst case, I will be wrong by a few weeks.
I have done worse.
The Devil's Excrement 
March 5, 2012 at 12:01 pm
I don’t agree in taking the word lesion as a synonym of injury. I think Chavez uses the word from the clinicians vocabulary. “A lesion can be almost any abnormal change involving any tissue or organ due to disease or injury. There are numerous types of lesions with different naming classifications…”
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9695
March 3, 2012 at 1:22 pm
That picture is so freaking creepy. Who buys that crap?
March 2, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Did Chavez leave orders that in case of his death, he would be autopsied to determine if he was poisoned by the U.S., like he did with Bolivar?
Hey–just asking!!!
March 2, 2012 at 7:47 pm
try asking la señora Magalys. http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/02-03-2012/espiritu-de-la-sabana-pide-mas-informacion-sobre-enfermedad-de-chavez/
March 4, 2012 at 6:22 pm
My Spanish stinks, but as soon as my wife gets out of the shower, I’m going to have her translate for me.
Parace chistoso!
March 1, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Actually, guys: you know what? If you have about 50 hours of recorded speech by someone, particularly on different subjects, you can produce a top text-to-speech system that transforms whatever you type in into that voice.
With Chávez there are thousands and thousands of hours of recordings.
They can do a Chávez text-to-speech module that is the best on Earth. It is actually a trivial task, it would cost less than 1/10 of a Russian tank to produce such a TTS system in a couple of weeks at this stage.
Listen to the last one, it could be better than that:
The top of the Partido Comunista Cubano just have to type in something in a text, feed that to the system and they get nice audio files with Chávez saying the message they want.
March 1, 2012 at 6:35 pm
Fidel is a lot shorter today than he was some years ago…either osteoporosis shrinkage, or…one of his various ” post-mortem” doubles (with a text-to-speech system for his few actual speeches)….
March 2, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Having a huge, heavy pair of ignorant balls impacts one’s height.
It’s simple gravity at work.
March 1, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Remember he can use the “electronic signature”..
so, every day Chavez is signing away more of Venezuela
to China, Cuba, Russians, etc. while hospitalized..
March 1, 2012 at 3:56 pm
or dead.
March 1, 2012 at 12:36 pm
This post is beginning to resemble a death vigil.
March 1, 2012 at 12:33 pm
To whom replied King Arthur, much in wrath:
‘Ah, miserable and unkind, untrue,
Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widowed of the power in his eye
That bowed the will. I see thee what thou art,
March 1, 2012 at 11:23 am
I hope you are not right, that he can make it to the elections and be beaten by Capriles. That is the best scenario. We do not want to have Chávez as a martyr, otherwise we will never outgrow the chavismo movement.
I made a post on what does the Constitution says in case of falta permanente.
http://cuentosintrascendentes.blogspot.com/2012/02/quien-puede-ser-presidente.html
As for the Ministra Sader…I found the whole thing strange. First, why does Chávez uses a minister to be his spokeperson? Does the minister nothing better to do than going to Cuba, staying with him and notify?
Second, since he explicitly gave her that job. Why hasn’t she spoken?
March 1, 2012 at 11:31 am
Today’s “Chavistas” were mostly Adecos/Copeyanos originally, except for the relatively newer generation. They will simply change their shirt color once again, but will still have their hand out!!!
March 1, 2012 at 11:59 am
maybe she didn’t want to lie? Or Hugo feel so good, he write the “medical report” himself? I was wandering too, how it read La Habana, Cuba, but no one signed it?
March 1, 2012 at 3:06 pm
Yes, I’d be much better not having a martyr’s altogether. But, a dead martyr (“valga la rebusnancia”) in practice would be ok. I really hate giving Fidel examples, because I really despise the guy, but in el che’s [Guevara] case, a dead martyr worked just fine for Fidel. I think a martyr HC would be just fine, specially since Chavismo, Revolucion, etc., etc. really have no true ideology, my guess is that the whole thing would fall apart pretty quickly (the top Revolucion guys are in for the money).
So, I pretty much disagree with you again. I’d rather have a martyr HC soon, before the elections, than a lingering HC after the elections still being able to issue orders. Before or after, I think it will be pretty messy anyway.
March 1, 2012 at 10:54 am
Original here:
http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/blogdomerval/
March 1, 2012 at 10:53 am
More information – rumour??.
He apparently has a minor hemorrhage & must be operated on again.
http://www.reporteconfidencial.info/noticia/3166704/periodista-brasileno-chavez-con-hemorragia-interna-/#.T0-X6AQLkls.twitter
March 1, 2012 at 11:16 am
Nelson Bocaranda S. @NelsonBocaranda
Runrun: Hemorragia nocturna fue por problema con drenaje. Ya corregido. No hara falta otra operación me informan desde Cuba
Apparently another operation will not be necessary
March 1, 2012 at 10:23 am
Se pasaron de cursi.
March 1, 2012 at 10:20 am
I won’t believe he’s really sick until he’s 6ft under.
March 1, 2012 at 10:14 am
A dark-blond bearded bloke with long hair making a sign behind Chávez’s
back? What’s that supposed to be?
Isn’t that a gringo CIA yuppie directing some cancer-generating
laser stream against our micomandante?
Muy sospechoso, pues.
March 1, 2012 at 10:01 am
Does the picture in your post means they already know he is almost there?… What is confusing is that he is showed in heaven… That is quite optimistic about who is going to be waiting for him… I think I prefer having him in jail.
March 1, 2012 at 8:48 am
Miguel –
I really had a hard time reading through your post. My eyes kept going to the image.
I can’t help feeling so much pity for my country, for the people, when THAT is what the government shows. They don’t show a medical report, they don’t trust the venezuelan oncologists, and the only two at the level of Chavez are God and JC? Really?
(Not even mentioning that is wipes out venezuelan jews and venezuelan muslims for that matter).
This might sound wrong to a lot of people, but that guy is better dead. Make him a martyr, sure.
En todo caso, una vez que el no este y se destape la olla de las barbaridades de su gobierno, la historia se encargara de borrar su memoria.
March 1, 2012 at 10:33 am
Becoming a martyr is questionable. An army division would be necessary to guard his tomb in Venezuela 24-7 to keep it from being desecrated by the huge number of people/their families he has hurt these12 years (Remember the statue of Che Guevara blown to bits on the Andean paramo??). Similarly if the tomb were in Cuba when the Castros finally fall.
March 1, 2012 at 11:25 am
Guard? Who talked about guard?
March 1, 2012 at 11:39 am
Perhaps they do a Lenin of him…you know, at the Plaza Bolívar or the extended Panteón, just next to Bolivar’s refurbished bones
March 1, 2012 at 3:53 pm
Maybe that was the objective behind the new building: provide a resting place for Ch., next to Bolívar’s remains.
March 1, 2012 at 6:31 pm
Or maybe a Venezuelan version of Tito’s tomb (in Belgrade) so that thousands of Chavistas can visit and admire him even after death!!!
March 1, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Sure.
Build it in Barinas in some remote town.
March 1, 2012 at 11:41 am
A guard would be necessary if the image of “respected martyr” were to be maintained.Obviously, this would not be available in the forthcoming return to DEMOCRACY!!!
March 1, 2012 at 8:09 am
CONDORITO !!!!
HAhahahAHahHAHAhaHAHAhAHhahahHAh
Brilliant!
PLOP!
The government is full of Pepe Cortisonas, Gargantas de Lata, Doñas Tremebundas……… But no Yayita whatsoever
HAhaHAHAhaHAhaHAha
March 1, 2012 at 7:07 am
While “lesión” is in principle correct, (it coul be a “lesión cancerosa”) the use of the word like here is quite wrong/ funny:
“Se realizó la extracción total de la lesión pélvica diagnosticada, extirpándose además, el tejido circundante a la lesión. (…) En las próximas horas se dispondrá de los estudios histológicos, que determinarán el tratamiento óptimo de la lesión”
So, the lesion was completedly removed to be subsequently appropiatedly treated.
March 1, 2012 at 3:51 pm
I read it like this: La lesión fue extraida totalmente para hacerle una biopsia (los dichos estudios histológicos). Una vez detectado el cáncer, o no, en la lesión estudiada, se determinará el tratamiento óptimo (quimoterapia o no). Otra posibilidad sería que Ch tiene cáncer tan avanzado que no vale la pena ni aplicarle la quimoterapia.
The photoshop of Chávez in heaven is creepy.
March 1, 2012 at 6:43 pm
Yes, that’s right, but he/they refuse to call things by their names, making a senseless sentence (how will you treat something is not there anymore?). It should be something like that:
-que determinaran el carácter de la lesión y la eventual necesidad de un tratamiento subsecuente. (still optimistic…)
-que determinarán el tratamiento óptimo de la dolencia/el paciente (more cryptic…)
There are some people there thinking he is cured, not kidding…
Chemotherapy may not work, if the cells don’t react anymore (they didn’t react to the first chemotherapy, but eventually there is another substance that could work… maybe they could test this first in vitro). Radiotherapy could only help locally. If there is no chemotherapy in the next weeks, that would mean they only hopes for no other cells, very thin probability would I say. If cancer comes again (and I think it would do to 95% probability) then it would be months of live left.
March 1, 2012 at 6:57 am
Miguel, hope you are right.
Nelson Bocaranda has some interesting news this morning:
http://www.eluniversal.com/opinion/120301/runrunes
One part talks about the abuse of steroids so that he could continue his role as president with vigor. This use of steroids has been counterproductive and, as of now, he will be unable to use them. Their use caused the rapid advance of the tumor.
The prohibition on the use of more steroids will have a marked effect on the appearance & energy of HCF as time moves on especially if he has more chemo treatments.
There’s a lot more. I tried to run it through Google translate but the translation was terrible.
March 1, 2012 at 7:17 am
Un médico dijo lo mismo ayer. Alguien en el blog de Daniel (pensaba que eras tú) había colocado el enlace a un youtube donde el especialista era entrevistado y hablaba sobre cómo se asceleró el cáncer por dichos esteroides. El Aissami luego lo insultó a través de Twitter.
March 1, 2012 at 7:49 am
those insults can be translated as “spot on, doctor”
March 1, 2012 at 7:53 am
It wasn’t me but I saw Aissami’s tweet this morning.
I now believe more than ever that anything that comes out of the mouths of government representatives is just a lie – pure & sweet – to continue the myth that this treatment of Chavez is just a small hiccup in HCF’s contiuued rape of Venezuela.
The VTV cult need something to believe. They are all in total denial.
March 1, 2012 at 6:06 am
Not only the lack of transparency is a key indicator that, according to Hugo´s twisted mind, Venezuelan must not know the truth about his sickness.
The “lesión” thing is stupid. Perhaps it has something to do with the behaviour I have witnessed in some cancer patients. They block themselves and do not mention the word, saying instaed “it”. The word has so many horrible images involved, that patients sometimes try to deny it to feel better.
The other stupid thing is how Hugo feels he must hide where the cancer was, because pehaps it was in his prostate or in his rectum, and that means that 20 hands and medical equipment are constantly – literally – up his ass.
Everything bad that happens to him is poetic justice for all that many innocents have sufffered.
For all the fallen and other victims since 1998: rot in hell, Hugo!!!!
March 1, 2012 at 1:25 am
Recurrence of a lesion.3rd operation. Looks like chemotherapy is not doing its job. Thats is very difficult in a metastatic sarcoma
February 29, 2012 at 11:52 pm
Condors are endangered aren’t they?
March 1, 2012 at 12:53 am
They’re also not the kind of bird you’d use in a metaphor if you’re trying to look tough in front of a latinamerican audience ( http://www.condorito.cl/ ).
February 29, 2012 at 11:52 pm
Judging from wiki and other sources it looks like most all media in Venezuela is government owned or funded. How does that get undone after the opposition takes over?
February 29, 2012 at 11:34 pm
The key is the changed date of the elections, if Chavez was going to recover then the elections would have been postponed, giving him time to get better, that it was brought forward means his cancer was expected to be terminal.
The plan was win the election and have his chosen one complete his mandate.
The supreme court would have ruled it legal, any opposition could have been answered with “when Kenned and Nixon were unable to complete their terms the Vice president did”.that it does not comply with the Venezuelan Constitution would as usual not matter, any US criticism would have been answered with, “whats good for the goose is good for the gander” now it looks like he won’t be around to campaign even for October.
February 29, 2012 at 11:24 pm
Just for clarification: “lesion” is a term used in medicine to described a tumor, either benign or malignant. This term is used in English too. So, in this particular case, it does not mean “injury”.
I agree with what has been said: the hiding of the truth is what makes us think that his malignancy is something really bad; otherwise, they would have said it clear and loud.
February 29, 2012 at 11:20 pm
From your pen to God’s eyes, Miguel.
I’d prefer that El Supremo pay for his sins a bit longer here on earth – Hell isn’t punishment enough – but it’s probably better for the country to be free of this curse sooner than later.
WARNING: Chavismo is more than Chavez. Someone is going to have to do the very hard work of educating and disarming his followers. To say nothing of removing the Cuban leeches.
March 1, 2012 at 4:52 am
Amen. Chávez is just the biggest tumour…or as he would say, “lesión”. Venezuela needs a full treatment as it has metastasised.
February 29, 2012 at 10:54 pm
He (or his Twitter team) just made a handful of tweets after 7 days of inactivity, here’s one:
“Muy buenas noches, mis queridos compatriotas! Aquí voy, levantando vuelo como el Cóndor! Les mando todo mi amor supremo!ViviremosYVenceremos”
February 29, 2012 at 11:00 pm
Now they are running with the condor quote and created a hashtag #ChavezLevantandoVueloComoElCondor
February 29, 2012 at 10:50 pm
>>>As to the”procedure”, it must have been rather simple, it took after all, only an hour and half, barely time to open and take a look, let alone to take a tumor or a “lesion” or even a hemorrhoid out.<<<
I was under the impression that there were two procedures, the first one being an examination. Supposedly this examination determined that the cure would be rather more complex than previously though. I know from experience that until the doctor opens the patient and has a look inside he cannot tell how far the cancer and the metastasis has gone.
February 29, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Out of pure pedantry: I believe the procedure Jaua mentioned was the removal of the “lesion” which took place Tuesday morning and lasted for 1h45m. The one before that was the laparotomy.
I agree, something doesn’t seem to add up. However, it still bothers me that doctors who come out to discuss Chavez’s cancer are either very careful with their assertions or are not oncologists such as Dr Marquina (@marquina04). If it’s true that Chavez has a Sarcoma, the prognosis is simply bleak. This would explain all the secrecy. Had it been prostate cancer or even colon cancer at an early stage they would have no reason to hide it.