Marquina doubles down

/ September 24, 2012

Not letting the cancer issue go away

Both Quico and I are a bit busy today. Still, I wanted to highlight this interview with Dr. Jose Rafael Marquina by Spanish newspaper ABC.

Marquina has become a sort of source-de rigueur for all things related to Chávez’s medical condition, by virtue of … his self-confidence, I guess.

The money quote:

“It is evident that the President is receiving high doses of steroids and painkillers, such as fentanyl,  which he receives for his pain. He is taking it late at night and early in the morning, due to the campaign. That is why Chávez always appears in public in the afternoon or early evenings.”

I don’t know if this guy is right or not, and frankly I’m a little suspicious of a doctor in Naples, Fla, knowing so much about Chávez’s health. But … if he’s right and Capriles loses on October 7th, we may be looking at another Presidential election in a short while.

I mean, Chávez was not seen in public yesterday – can he really be as cured as he claims he is?

Let’s keep that in mind.

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30 thoughts on “Marquina doubles down”

  1. Sobre ese punto, Miguel Salazar escribió el pasado viernes en sus Verdades, que de ganar Chávez, se estaría preparando una reforma constitucional en donde, por ausencia abosuluta del presidente antes de los primeros 4 años de gobierno, en vez de convocar a nuevas elecciones (art 233 CNRBV), el vicepresidente pueda culminar el período presidencial, con lo cual garantizarían la permanencia del chavismo hasta el 2019. Pendientes con eso. Esperemos que HCR y el voto popular no lo permitamos.

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  2. I’m with ‘Julio’ but how exactly can one be ‘pendiente’ with a view to achieving any other sort of outcome. (thinks: “Elias”….HMMMNN.

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    • ABC is definitely a shitty source of info, agree with you there. Now, why their interest in Venezuelan affairs? Is one of the owners a Venezuelan?

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  4. I’m with Quico on this one, Marquina does not pass the smell test.

    Not the fact he is in Naples, just that you would think by now whatever “source” he has would have been rolled up and “taken Care of”.

    There is no way that Marquina’s earlier statements could come from simple observation, if so the CIA has a spot for him for sure!

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  5. Maybe this doctor in Naples would be better suited on telling us how insane Cong. Connie Mack the 3rd is, he is running the US Senate here in Florida and form all accounts is behind.

    As for president Chavez he was seen in massive rallies :In one of the largest concentrations in Merida state’s history, tens of thousands of locals rallied in support of presidential candidate Hugo Chavez on Friday. Yesterday, there was a similarly large turnout in Trujillo state, and thousands also marched in support of the social missions in Caracas.

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    • LOL.

      I live in Mérida and in any Ferias del Sol there’s way more people than that. People that comes to town, no need to bring them in buses.

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    • There are a lot of people whose job description includes showing up at these things. You know that, or you don’t know anyone who works in the public service. Get a grip.

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    • Chavez has had the mandate and billions of dollars during the las decade to bring a real revolution to Venezuela. He was called to put and end to the corruption, poverty and all the many problems that we have. Instead, he decided to waste the opportunity and become the ultimate hero that will vanquish capitalism and imperialism. It was obvious to anyone with some common sense, that he would fail miserably. Not only did he fail miserably, but he dragged the entire country down with him.

      Billions and billions of petrodollars wasted, >150.000 murdered persons during the last decade, impunity above 90%, a collapsing infrastructure, an annual inflation above 20% for the last several years, and a paralyzing brain drain are the results of his megalomania.

      It would be foolish to believe that a person who has proven to be a compulsive liar will change overnight and stick to his word this time. Pero como dicen, cada día sale un pendejo a la calle y el que se lo consigue es el dueño. Suerte de Chávez – y desgracia nuestra – que él se haya conseguido a seis millones de pendejos como tú que se creen sus cuentos…

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  6. People listen to this guy because he was right once or twice with his guesses? I dunno. I think his time in the spotlight should be over unless he actually KNOWS something and he obviously does not. He probably loves the attention he still gets but his 15 minutes are up. BTW, if you click on my name, does my new satirical blog come up? I have nothing about Venezuela, because I have no idea how to satirize Venezuelan politics. Sometimes it seems to be doing a good job parodying itself.

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  7. Hey Cort Greene,
    Venezuelanalysis is pure Chavez propaganda. Don’t believe any of the crap they publish. It is not a news agency, it is paid for by Chavez and it is always 100% pro-Chavez. duh? Merida is a college town in the Andes. Chavez is not loved in Merida. It is good practice to give a citation when you copy text.

    Look at the picture in the article. The crowd fills out all of what, one whole block? I do not see “tens of thousands”. How many were paid to attend? How many were forced to attend to keep their government jobs? Everyone in red, means Chavistas were handing out red t-shirts and hats paid with government funds. This was not a spontaneous rally.

    http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7275 has the article-
    “Mérida, September 23rd 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – In one of the largest concentrations in Merida state’s history, tens of thousands of locals rallied in support of presidential candidate Hugo Chavez on Friday. Yesterday, there was a similarly large turnout in Trujillo state, and thousands also marched in support of the social missions in Caracas.”

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      • (LOL- Cort had to cut and paste THAT?
        When you are a PSF who doesn’t know an aardvark from an arepa, and does not have any interest in learning enough about Venezuela to be able to tell the difference, Venezuelanalysis is going to be your information source.

        Good catch, Canucklehead.

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        • Ronaldo was the brave soul to visit venezuelanalysis and catch that one. I can’t look at venezuelanalysis any more without losing my lunch. Its like some kind of frankenstein monster of chavista/cubano ministry of thought control propaganda married with your worst type of extremist gringo paranoid thinking short of a backwoods Michigan militia written in the style of a lobotomized MIT professor.

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      • Check #9 in the following 10/22 rules on: “How to Write Good” by Sally Bulford

        1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
        2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
        3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)
        4. Employ the vernacular.
        5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
        6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
        7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
        8. Contractions aren’t necessary.
        9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
        10. One should never generalize.

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  9. I am no expert, but any competent diagnostician can determine a lot from photos, video, and a few clues. The CIA (or any other competent modern intelligence agency) has a corps of medical doctors tasked with determining the physical and mental health status of world leaders based on even less data. So, I don’t find it at all implausible that Marquina could provide the level of diagnosis that he states. However, the fact that he seems to be a bit of a publicity hound should be a cautionary note. I would think that a serious physician would disdain and refrain from public diagnosis.

    Conclusion: Still don’t know… Wait and see.

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  10. Marquina may not pass the smell test, but anybody with some medical knowledge of cancer and pain management knows that what Marquina says makes a lot of sense. His bloated face screams: stereoids and phentanyl is the strongest painkiller available for a functional person – next step would be hospital connected to IVs and hoses.
    I saw the email by the alledged janitor. Does anybody believe a janitor would have the type of access as he claims at CIMEQ no less? Crap, and btw he also claims Marquina is a Cuban agent. Sure…, just like you guys are paid by the CIA.
    Something is very wrong when a guy wears a winter ski jacket in 30+ C heat! Also, why this huge podium + large wings from which he speaks? What”s hidden underneath? Ok, ok, my next sentence was going to be about earless Martians with red oval eyes, but I leave it at this, except for stating that the guy is seriously ill, no doubt.

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  12. In all fairness to Marquina, some months ago, when Chavez was getting (exploratory?) surgery in Cuba, and looked terrible afterwards, Marquina said Chavez would last until the Election, but not too much longer after it….Time will tell.

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  13. Yes, time will tell, but this is somthing I disagree with Marqina: to predict the demise of a cancer patient accurately. There are innumerable cases of the doctor telling the patient “get your stuff together, you got 3 month max.” (probably using nicer wording) and then this patient is still alive 3 years later, often with the cancer in check even though it’s an uncurable stage 4.

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