Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




ENERGY TECH
Chavez health raises succession worries
by Staff Writers
Caracas, Venezuela (UPI) Dec 14, 2012


disclaimer: image is for illustration purposes only

The next few weeks to the scheduled Jan. 10 presidential inauguration in Venezuela will determine how politics will affect ordinary lives in the oil-rich nation and its future direction.

Indications are that Venezuela is heading for a messy succession even if Chavez survives and lingers in poor health and Vice President Nicolas Maduro becomes the de facto ruler.

Chavez named Maduro to succeed him if "something were to happen that would incapacitate me." That implies disability in illness or recovery more than imminent death.

Since he was first reported to be ill last year the health of Chavez has been the subject of officially sanctioned obfuscation, piecemeal media coverage and ambiguity about every aspect except that Chavez has cancer.

The cancer was apparently detected during surgery for a pelvic abscess in June 2011. Little else is known about the illness, the treatment for which Chavez has relied almost entirely on Cuban doctors.

Treatment in Cuba has guaranteed privacy, secrecy and news management. Only recently have Chavez aides begun to open up on the president's health. Information Minister Ernesto Villegas announced Chavez suffered complications, including internal bleeding, after the latest surgery.

"This process of recuperation ... will require a prudent time, as a result of the complexity of the surgical procedure, and also because of complications that came up in the surgery," Villegas said in a televised address.

Chavez, 58, underwent six hours of surgery Tuesday and his condition raised questions about whether he would be well enough to attend his inauguration Jan. 10.

"It would be irresponsible to hide the delicacy of the current moment and the coming days," Villegas said Wednesday in a posting on the ministry's website.

Of immediate concern to Chavez loyalists is the question whether Maduro can hold the Bolivarian revolution together and whether he can put his own stamp on a caretaker regime.

The opposition wants fresh elections if Chavez doesn't show for the January inauguration. Chavez loyalists, on the other hand, are divided over Maduro's guardianship of Chavez's populist brand of socialism.

There's an almost equal amount of worry and hope among loyalists who want the Chavez legacy to continue, but with modifications -- less fiery rhetoric, more cool-headed pragmatism.

Most loyalists agree that Chavez, who was re-elected to a fourth term last year, cannot complete his new six-year term unless he returns to full health -- an eventuality many still look forward to.

Although Maduro often repeats Chavez's populist pronouncements he is also regarded as a pragmatist and behind-the-scenes power broker between divergent power centers of the military, the unions and the ruling PSUV socialist party.

Many loyalists and opposition analysts see Maduro as the architect of Venezuela's ongoing reconciliation with Colombia, a far cry from Chavez's warnings of war in 2010-11.

However, both sides also agree that Maduro will need to grow in the job if he wants to become the next socialist strongman.

If Chavez's early departure forces a new presidential election, as the constitution requires, Maduro will find himself facing a serious rival in defeated presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.

Capriles is seeking re-election Sunday as governor of the Miranda state but the Chavez health saga has the opposition worrying the vote could go either way.

Sympathy for Chavez could dash Capriles' hopes of staying in politics and trying again for the presidency.

On the other hand, his gubernatorial re-election would pit him directly against Maduro the caretaker or the president-in-waiting.

.


Related Links
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








ENERGY TECH
Trio Merger Corp. and SAE agree to merge
Calgary, Alberta (UPI) Dec 13, 2012
Trio Merger Corp. and SAExploration have agreed to merge as part of a strategy to expand SAE's seismic data acquisition business worldwide. SAE was set up in Peru in 2006 and is a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Calgary, where it employs about 60 administrative staff while running up to a dozen seismic exploration operations globally with an additional work force of more than ... read more


ENERGY TECH
NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon

Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored

To the moon and back for less than 2 billion dollars

NASA's GRAIL Creates Most Accurate Moon Gravity Map

ENERGY TECH
Opportunity Checking Out Some Rocks At Matijevic Hill

Curiosity Rover Nearing Yellowknife Bay

Charitum Montes: a cratered winter wonderland

Opportunity Continues Rock Studies

ENERGY TECH
NASA Awards Commercial Crew Certification Contracts

China patent office becomes world's largest: WIPO

What happens to plant growth when you remove gravity?

Scientists say NASA's budget inadequate for its goals

ENERGY TECH
Mr Xi in Space

China plans manned space launch in 2013: state media

China to launch manned spacecraft

Tiangong 1 Parked And Waiting As Shenzhou 10 Mission Prep Continues

ENERGY TECH
Medical Ops, Fan Checks for Space Crew; New Trio Checks Soyuz

Khrunichev Completes Nauka Space Station Module

New Crew of ISS to Perform Two Spacewalks

Space Station to reposition for science

ENERGY TECH
ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013

Russia works to fix satellite's off-target orbit

ULA Launch Monopoly to End

SPACEX Awarded Two EELV Class Missions From The USAF

ENERGY TECH
Astronomers discover and 'weigh' infant solar system

Search for Life Suggests Solar Systems More Habitable than Ours

Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?

Brown Dwarfs May Grow Rocky Planets

ENERGY TECH
Apple shares extend downward slide

Jury rules Apple iPhone violated MobileMedia patents

XTAR Wins $8 Million In New Business

Boeing, BMW Group to collaborate on carbon fiber recycling




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement