Posted on 01/07/2013 2:26:02 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela — Hugo Chavez’s fervent followers still assemble in the capital’s main public square, decked in the bright red of their leader’s movement, to chant revolutionary songs that envisage the president leading the country far into the future.
But Chavez, who has dominated public life here since the late 1990s, is nowhere to be seen. He no longer gives his trademark bombastic speeches, nor does he hold forth on television like a game-show host. On Sunday, he remained in Cuba, where he has been for nearly a month, presumably convalescing after undergoing surgery to remove what he called “some malignant cells” in his pelvic region, from which doctors have struggled to extricate a cancerous tumor.
To Venezuelans, it is becoming clear that Chavez may well not return by Thursday, a key day in the political calendar. The 58-year-old former paratrooper is supposed to be inaugurated that day for a fourth term that would extend his presidency until 2019.
Opposition leaders say that would leave a power vacuum that by law should shift authority to an interim leader of the leftist government and trigger fresh elections, a scenario that could end the socialist government that has transformed one of the world’s great oil powers. That is unlikely to happen, however, with the president’s top aides sending strong signals over the weekend that they were scrambling to postpone the inauguration.
“I am clear that the president may not be able to take the oath in five days because of his condition, but what’s the problem?” said Javier Ramirez, 54, who works on ideological training in Chavez’s Socialist party and joined the crowds over the weekend at Bolivar Plaza. “If El Comandante cannot be here, we will be the commander. We will be Chavez.”...........
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The good die young and the evil overstay their presence.
Followers of Chavez are stating they intend to ignore the Venezuelan Constitution when Chavez doesn’t rise up off his Cuban death bed to be sworn in on Jan 10th.
What next? Just let Vice President Nicolas Maduro assume the presidency without calling a new election (as required by the Constitution - incidentally, the new Constitution put into place by Chavez)?
When the dictator is on his sick bed the long knives are drawn.
God can deliver people from their bondage no matter how many armed guards a dictator has...when will they learn they are not gods on earth...
Sounds like a Weekend at Bernie’s situation
Dead Man walking, won’t be long now.
Just pull the plug already!
Please let me know when his condition is “grave”.
Why would they hospitalize his remains?
HF
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