In a video now playing on VTV, but recorded on Wednesday, Chávez talks diplomacy with Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro and…he looks fine! Sad, of course, and thinner. But basically fine. He manages a couple of semi-credible laughs. Rangel Silva is also in the frame, as well as Raúl wannabe Adán.
Why didn’t they release this right after last night’s video?!!
Update: The Fidel hero-worship shtick is on massive overdrive these days.
Update 2: He’s flashing copies of Wednesday’s papers to prove the date of the speech.
Caracas Chronicles 
Could it be that all this is staged? I know it sound ridiculous but coming from those guys, you never know. He does seem sick though, and it’s too early for them to pull a stunt like this to try to push his popularity back.
Perhaps I’m being too paranoid.
LikeLike
My paranoid side though about that, BUT to skip the bicentennial…
LikeLike
A link to the video would be much appreciated, if there is one
LikeLike
LikeLike
Imagine the end-of-life dream for Fidel: Venezuela en el bolsillo, una satélite comandada desde La Habana. Permanentemente. Y todo gracias al cuadro de salud, en posible deterioro, del teniente coronel venezolano.
LikeLike
syd – accept my apologies beforehand, but this comment exceeds the ridiculous paranoia which you have exhibited for years on various blog comments.
LikeLike
I’m BUMMED.
I wanted (still want) to beat a healthy, strong Chavez. I wanted (still want) the nation to clearly reject Chavismo.
Now the narrative is likely to be…Chavez was strong, then Chavez got cancer, then….
It’s going to be about a weakened candidate, not about a rejection of his ideology and incompetence.
So….I’m wishing him a very speedy and virtually complete recovery.
LikeLike
It is the Venezuelan curse to always see things in a negative light unless it comes to pipe dreams.
LikeLike
I don’t want to sabotage your wishes, but the likely outcomes for Venezuela before were not pretty:
a)Having Hugo run Venezuela into the ground, to much death and suffering
b)Having a new government making hard decisions to try to fix the disarray left by Hugo, haunted by a very live (even if exiled) Hugo and harassed by all the violence chavismo can muster and being ousted. To much death and suffering, and back to situation a)
c)Having a new government making hard decisions, etc. being successful and stemming chavismo’s attempts. To some death and suffering, and possibly to defeat in the next election by chavismo (because of all the bad karma and unpopularity), and maybe even by Chavez himself, it’s sort of back to situation a).
However I would have liked for Hugo to be discredited totally, and Venezuelans to turn in droves to free market liberalism, it’s people, not academical proofs we are talking about who should live and suffer through it all. Droves that will have their lives cut short by violence.
He is sick, the circumstance is fortunate, and neither he nor his followers should not be afforded any respite except for permanent retirement and disbandment. After all he is no innocent, he really wanted to rule for life. He might have the power to influence the length of his life by quitting. Bravado and pity might be fine for gentlemen of the past but Hugo plays for keeps.
LikeLike
Perhaps this is why Maduro was not in the “Group Portrait without Caudillo”.
This newspaper show reminds me of this:
LikeLike
If it’s prostate cancer, even in stage 4, chances are high he’ll be around quite a few years, especially under medical care afforded by accountantless, bottomless pockets. I think some people are taking this succession question too far, too soon.
—
LikeLike
I think it’s only natural. He’s going to have his ups and downs and when he can focus on his job and not his illness he’s going to be his old self, specially in public.
La procesion va por dentro.
His decisions in the coming months are going to tell us if he is thinking about an early succession or about staying in power for a couple of years. But I bet you he won’t mention 2021 anymore.
LikeLike
To me, a complete staged thing. He is sick, yes. But he is playing the Messiah 2nd Coming playwrite. “My dear disciples, I am going to the abyss, but I will return. I don’t want any of you having to suffer this ordeal with me, because our father, the revolution, is testing me. My brothers and sisters, I will return”
Producers and Directors: The Castro Bros.
LikeLike
Although I believe Chavez is quite devious, throwing his government into disarray seems like a very complicated way to raise election numbers. There are quite a few PSUVistas all worked up and looking at how they can be next in line for the presidential chair. If Chavez wanted to enter the 2012 elections with a lot of support, all he would have to do is dig into his rainy day funds, buy a bunch of cheap plastic crap and distribute it around his electoral strongholds. We shouldn’t assume there’s a wild herd of zebras loose just because we hear hoofbeats. Sometimes cancer is….cancer.
LikeLike
Sorry, I should have used the word “ill”. Although is is sick tambien….
LikeLike
If the US Congress fails to lift the debt ceiling, there may be another global economic melt-down that will cripple the Venezuelan economy and hit the price of oil again! Credit markets could very well seize up, and the Chavista spending spree will be doomed to an abrupt end. How well can Hugo manage that along with his health issues? When will REALITY strike? Who will be in charge of that situation? How are tanks and militias going to help anything?
LikeLike
How is a pale and weak Hugo going to look when the entire Venezuelan is looking to him for leadership in the midst of a dismal crisis?
LikeLike