First image of Chávez since December released

/ February 15, 2013

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Information Minister Ernesto Villegas and Science Minister Jorge Arreaza have made public in cadena nacional the first image of the comandante presidente since December 8th, 2012. Arreaza showed two photos of Hugo Chávez with his daughters in Havana.

Previously, Villegas provided the latest medical report where he indicated that Chávez has assisted respiration and is currently unable to talk because of a tracheal cannula (tube).

In the picture, Chávez reads yesterday’s edition of Cuban official newspaper Granma. The main headline says “Raul (Castro) meets with the Executive Secretary of the CEPAL“.  Alicia Bárcena has been visiting Cuba the entire week, according to CEPAL’s website.

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110 thoughts on “First image of Chávez since December released”

  5. OK, he is alive. With assistance (tracheal intubation), undergoing treatment against cancer. Can’t seat or stay.
    Maduro every day on tv…

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    • Yes, scarring can seen on his throat next to the track suit zipper.
      Why is the printing blurred beneath the title Granma?

      An average mortician could get a corpse to appear like Chavez in the photo.
      Given the odd complexion tones, this could also be a wax figure.
      Not that I want to start a conspiracy theory but that is exactly what is happening.

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      • I wouldn’t be impressed if it is a wax figure, it certainly looks like one. It might be the first step in the chavez-comes-back-to-venezuela-and-gets-killed-in-midair plan.

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        • The killed in mid-air plan would make it easy to blame the U.S. for his death. As it stands now the Cubans are culpable.

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  6. Can’t talk. Can’t get out of bed. Most likely never will. WTF?

    Even the Pope knew when the time had come to call it a day.

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    • Tratamiento paliativo => translation: There’s nothing more to be done. The patient is dying. And no more heroic measures will be undertaken.

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    • Maybe now they will… Jaua in Cuba… “tratamiento paliativo”, Arreaza spoke clear text today in VTV, Chávez is dying (surprise!).

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      • thinking about it, would be Jaua the best suited to bring the resignation as he is not directly involved like Maduro or Cabello?

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        • and that’s why the pictures, to probe that Chávez is alive and he resigned by himself… Maybe I’m wrong, but wait for a cadena today (or when Jaua returns)

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          • I say, counted from yesterday when I had the thought, they will take between 10 and 20 days until they announce resignation. Arrezas “tratamiento paliativo” was maybe just a mistake of expression, he probably let something out he didn’t want to yet… And they must have a plan…if they wanted to call out elections already now, they could have waited to devaluate 6 more weeks.
            Let me fantasize a bit…what is the worst that can happen to the oppositional faction of the AN if two members of the opposition become sentences in what the government tries to put as a “corruption case” of PJ ? Would the opposition just loose two seats in the AN, or could they replace them ? Help me out, I don’t know the answer…but I think of the 3/5 majority. What would be needed to change the constitution in terms of any decisive detail that would allow them to avoid elections and to put Maduro there? Or at least to delay them clearly even if resignation was announced?
            Maybe this kind of card they could try to play? Or is this too speculative?

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  12. So now what? Bocaranda has him in the ICU and there he is (with heavy make-up) smiling with his daughters, on the same day. Marquina had him dead in a few days, maybe a couple of weeks. Lesson learned for the umpteen’s time: One just can’t win the game of deceit against the Cubans.

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    • Rarely are people outside of the ICU and still intubated, the fact that they admitted he is now intubated again shows he couldn’t have been that healthy in this picture either. They just propped him up, with some makeup (as you point out) and snapped a few pictures. I don’t think Bocaranda was proven wrong at all. Marquina’s outlook might have been a bit too pessimistic on Chavez’s health.

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  13. just yesterday I was asking myself if anybody had seen the two caritas de cochino lately, and here they are… viva(?) chabe.

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      • In spanish at least it is:
        “La diferencia entre cuidados paliativos y tratamiento paliativo
        Tanto los cuidados paliativos como el tratamiento paliativo para desahuciados brindan bienestar.

        Los cuidados paliativos pueden empezar en el momento del diagnóstico y se pueden brindar al mismo tiempo que el tratamiento.
        El tratamiento paliativo para desahuciados comienza cuando es claro que el paciente no va a sobrevivir a la enfermedad y se suspende el tratamiento poshospitalario de ésta. El tratamiento paliativo se ofrece normalmente sólo cuando se espera que la persona viva 6 meses más, o menos tiempo.”
        http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/ency/patientinstructions/000536.htm
        Ld
        And he is minister for science, so, he should know…

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        • Well, I guess it depends on your source. The Mayo Clinic has a different definition which does not limit Palliative care to end of life situations. See:

          http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/palliative-care/MY01051

          In any event, obviously he is not in good shape and the long term prospects are bleak, otherwise we would see a photo of him walking or a video of him moving. I think putting together this montage probably took a lot of effort and was needed because things are getting out of control for his minions.

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    • Just in time for what Corte Verdee. After two months we get 4 pictures and you get happy? Did you know that he is actually the president of a nation and should be working and not reading Granma and smiling? What a huge blind foca-troll you are

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    • Given that he’s already raised Bolivar and Easter is just around the corner…

      In the back of my head, I can just sorta see a sneaky Gobierno/PSUV plot to turn El Presidente into a messianic figure who rises to bless the masses with another devaluation just in time for Easter Sunday. Then he flies off on a plane and into the sunset, never to be seen nor heard from again, but invoked by the masses in the Venezuelan pantheon (literally, or figuratively, you decide) a la Jose Gregorio.

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  19. Love the tri-color tracksuit in the background too, like he’s going to be jumping out of bed and wearing it real soon…

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  20. The only thing this proves to me is that Chávez is not dead yet. None of us really believed that anyway, so there’s no real news here.

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  21. things were getting so out of control that they needed something to placate the puebio’s anger over the devaluation, so they set up this photo shoot.

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  22. Why is he reading the back page of Granma?

    (Other than to have the identifiable front page toward the camera.)

    What’s on the back page?

    And how does he read with his eyes closed?

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  23. As the day draws on, opinion that would bolster the feeling that these snapshots aren’t 100% kosher seems to be accumulatng. As for the glasses metioned there, not a small detail at all at all; and, another smaller detail, who wears a jogging outfit in bed anyway?

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    • I think this gives more credibility as these are real shots, they try to show a “not so bad” Chávez. If they really tried to make false pictures they wouldn’t fail with those arranged details. Does he really read the Granma? And does it matters? No, it is to show the picture is from the day. Do you see the tracheotomy? No, it would be not so nice to see/show. The iPod is also a 6th generation apparently, not the newest, but at least 2010. The tricolor suit? Sure, el tricolor es nuestro.

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  26. Some people are claiming the newspaper was photospped, I do not understand the argument:

    but doesn’t anyone see a sort of white arrow on the upper right hand side corner of the front page of the paper.

    Note the blue pillow is there holding his head, he probably is weak and can’t lift it or control it much.

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      • if you are going to anaylse images, I suggest you go to the source:

        I doubt what you say. Do checkout the bandages under the daughter’s wrist. And you call yourself a professional photographer? The image is real but staged. That simple.

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        • maybe if you spat out what you’re trying to say, we’d both understand. as for doubts, you’re welcome to yours. Have no idea what bandages you’re talking about, under the daughter’s wrist.
          The image may be real to you, but staged. To me, it’s staged, it’s dated, and it’s manipulated in the post-process.

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    • p.s. You can substitute elements in an image, in several ways. To keep matters simple, rather than bog you down with technicals… take an image, say of a Feb 14th Granma newspaper. Now place it on a separate layer, over what you want to modify. Use your layer filter for that additional layer, plus an opacity filter so that you can see the underlying layer that will receive the new element. Now you can distort, bend, add perspective, or whatever you want, so that the element to be superimposed looks like the one you want to substitute. When you’re satisfied, you can blend the new element in place of the old, before flattening the image. Voilà. Anything is possible.

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      • an overzealous (and amatuer) mind can also substitute reality for delusion (wishful thinking). Group-think is similar. You really think the Cubans are going to fuck the picture up with some amateurish photoshopping? You really underestimate the Cubans.

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        • Photoshopping need not be amateurish. It all depends on the level of expertise and the amount of disposable time to do the changes. They can be laborious when aiming to fool.

          To me the edges of the top of the newspaper and the right corner look too perfectly frayed. I’m not convinced that Granma’s top edges would look that way, photographically.

          You’re welcome to think that the photos were staged and taken only yesterday. That is, on the patient’s 60th+ day in bed, after his body has been submitted to the utmost physical duress, during all that time, and according to rumour, back in the ICU in his track suit.

          In spite of the extreme conditions the patient has experienced for over a 2-month period, Ch. looks rather rozagante, wouldn’t you say?, regardless of the stiff and stretched out smile. No, no weight loss there. Must be all that Cuban cooking.

          P.S. Thanks for the links to minci uploads. It’s not my habit to scrounge around and analyze the nth degree of photos produced by rogues, except on a cursory basis, risks to groupthink notwithstanding.

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    • Miguel, that “white arrow” is the reflection of the flash apparently, if you look at the other pictures too you would see the paper is creased on that corner, also on the open paper at the opposite. Looking at the pictures the paper looks very real, see also my post further down here. I’m to more than 95% sure that the pictures are real with that paper ;)

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  27. “…he indicated that Chávez has assisted respiration and is currently unable to talk…”

    Perhaps stating the obvious, but why don’t the Cubans stick the microphone up Chavez’s rear end, and hey presto, communication problem solved…

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  28. The photographer must be congratulated Chavez appears impressively life like, and you can even see the easy spontaneous frozen smile on his face , the stiff glued head posture does seem a bit artificial , but hey there is a limit to what a skillful photographer can do , For sure the photo , with the tender presence of his two fresh faced daughters if bound to bring tears of joy to many of his followers ,With a tracheotomy in place Mr Maduros reports of extensive discussions with the dear leader may now seem a dash exagerated . Let all of us rejoice in the reappearance of our dear leaders image , a tribute to the artistry of some unnamed cuban photographer

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    • There are so many majunches saying Hitler is dead, they can’t stand Germany followed a path independent from the United States, the path of socialism and nationalism! Now they will have to deal with absolute proof of the Führer’s life, there’s no way you can fake a photograph like that!!

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      • No wonder the Holocaust beagle hounds couldn’t find Hitler. Not in the Bunker. Not in Argentina, nor in Brazil. No one, but no one dreamed of looking in Aragua!

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  30. Isnt it wonderful , with these amazing pictures of the dear leader now we can all forget about the consequences of the Paquetazo !!

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    • what a bunch of hapless idiots… they don’t even know how to deal with Youtube’s automatic content filtering and they are too cheap to pay for a director’s account.

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  32. The final prognosis does not change. It stands to reason that the December operation could not perform a miracle, that is cure his cancer. That further therapy is likely to be useless and shorten his life further, and that “tratamiento paliativo” is all there is to do. Yeah, the Bipolar Rodent did nail it. How can this man be President, what sane nation would not put him aside and appoint or elect another, healthier one? How did our Republic allow itself to be destroyed to the point that we have to follow the health of a dying man via deceitful proxies?

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  33. Mientras más tarde se muera mejor para nosotros, con el loco de Giordani mandando esto se debería de poner más feo rapido.

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  34. http://www.firstpost.com/world/photos-of-ailing-chavez-stir-emotions-in-venezuela-628160.html

    One of the guys, selling the new Chavez pictures on the streets…
    ” ‘It doesn’t matter that he can’t talk. We understood his message,’ said Aniluz Serrano, 57, selling prints in colonial Bolivar Square, named for Venezuela’s independence hero and Chavez’s idol, Simon Bolivar. ‘When I saw this photo, I thought how beautiful, here he is calling on the people to keep fighting. When I see this smile, I can see Christ, I can see Simon Bolivar.’ ”

    Man oh man oh man. But ok. If he sees this, we’re not entitled to disrespect his perception and personal emotion. However, he doesn’t mention he sees on this picture the president for the coming 6 years.

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    • That’s so fucked… Referring Simon Bolivar as Chavez’ idol is like referring to Jesus as the pope’s idol.

      “In the new testament, a book about Nazareth’s religious hero and Ratzinger’s idol, Jesus . . . “

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  35. I was thinking how to be sure if that are real pictures or not. Well, at least 2 of the pictures are taken apparently within seconds. If true, this would be difficult to fake and photoshop edit will be apparently changing quickly between the two. I got the originals from AVN site, as screenshot and put the second centered on the smile of HCh. If you open the pictures with preview on the mac (or something similar on Windows, allowing to change between the two with a keystroke) you can see how they are taken from a slightly changed position, giving a 3-D sense if you change quickly forth and back. To me this is prove enough that these are real pictures, while maybe photoshoped in details.
    Here you can see the pictures
    http://imageshack.us/g/94/avn2.png/

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