Report: Chavez's cancer has 'entered the end stage

[naaman fletcher]

Dan Rather

This reporter has been told that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive cancer that has "entered the end stage". The information and the quote come from a highly respected source close to Chavez and who is in a position to know his medical condition and history. This source says the prognosis is dire and that Chavez is now not expected to live "more than a couple of months at most." Chavez is running for re-elec tion in Venezuela but several sources--including the one who revealed the exact kind of cancer-- have told me that they believe it is doubtful the dictator will live to see the results.

http://news.yahoo.com/report--chavez-s-cancer-has--entered-the-end-stage-.html

[Warren Stupidity]

1. "they believe it is doubtful the dictator" - crapload of bullshit.

Chavez may or may not be dying soon, and if he dies in office he will have in fact managed to have been president for life, but not in the sense that his many detractors here believe. Rather should be ashamed for allowing that crap in his article.

Chavez and his Bolivarian movement have reversed the course of neoliberal degeneration in Venezuela, many countries in latin america have joined in this effort to resist and reverse the depredations of 30 years of neoliberal policies imposed on the region and its people. They have done so using democratic reform movements. It is the latter fact that most upsets and disturbs the right: a popular democratic socialist political movement gaining power and implementing real reforms that improve the lives of the people.

[joshcryer]

7. Look at "more than a couple of months at most." I think it's bad editing.

It makes no sense for Dan Rather to be saying that, but if he intended quotes there, it could be the quotes were lost in translation.

[ChangoLoa]

11. "30 years of neoliberal policies".. not in Venezuela

Before the 1989 IMF reform, Venezuela was under a state-centered import substitution strategy, with a fixed exchange rate, an average 80% import tax and price controls for every single basic product. The framework in which Chavez is evolving nowadays is in fact way closer to the neoliberal policies you try to denounce than the one applied by the social-democratic party before the IMF reform. There's no import substitution anymore, virtually no import taxes and foreign capital is more involved than it ever was in the oil industry since the 1976 nationalization.

There's a historical reality in Venezuela which doesn't always equate to the usual ready-to-use Latin America stereotype.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. 30 years in Latin America. And it is more than 30 years, as it starts with Chile.

[ChangoLoa]

14. Argentina has restarted an industrial policy, Brazil a little less

Venezuela NADA. We're still evolving on the same open trade frame that we inherited from the 1989 reform. This government hasn't changed it since 1999. Rhetoric is one thing, applied macro policies are a different one. In our case, the dependency on imports and the industrial recession have only deepened. Constantly, since 1989. There's not any more formal employment than there was when oil's export value was 15$.

Conclusion: the windfall gains from the oil shock haven't been used to create a less dependent economy/society. They've only helped to import huge quantities of consumption goods... great! We're like the UAE, with almost 30 million people.

But a really great Venezuelan free and universal healthcare, some say? I suggest you check the WHO list... the one where Cuba and the US are almost tied. The one we saw in M. Moore's "Sicko". Where's Venezuela? Between Albania and Jamaica. 17 steps lower than the mediocre US.

If oil price goes down to even 70$ a barrel... I don't want to imagine what would happen here.

[naaman fletcher]

15. I have found

that no country pretty much equates to the usual ready-to-use Latin America stereotypes, except perhaps Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. he needs to step down now

while a Capriles victory may be the best scenario for a variety of reasons, I simply don't think that the Chavistas will willingly relinquish power. I think that scenario is even more likely if Chavez dies just before the election. there will be chaos.


Cuba must be frantic right now.

[teddy51]

3. So why are you calling him a dictator? As far as I recall he won election by his people fairly. nt

[naaman fletcher]

5. When did I call him a dictator? nt.

[teddy51]

8. "have told me that they believe it is doubtful the dictator will live to see the results."

Unless I am blind, it appears in the above line!

[naaman fletcher]

9. Oh

Well that is Dan Rather, not me.

[teddy51]

10. I do like Dan Rather, but I certainly do not like the fact that he calls President Hugo Chavez

a dictator. This man has been amazing to his people, and most certainly the poor. The West and Corporations have been all over his ass for a number of years, and he has stood tall in his defense for his country. So when President Chavez does succumb to his ailment I hope his people will be there to say, we Love You for what you have done for us, and we will miss you Mr. President.

[ChangoLoa]

12. "We love you" except for the thousands who lost their jobs in the public administration

when they participated in the referendum against Chavez.

Do you know about Lista Tascon? Do you understand the reach of a political black list including 5 million citizens in a country of 18 million adults? Please consider those facts as you consider the bright side of Venezuela's political reality.

[naaman fletcher]

16. "his people"

They are nobodies people. They are each individuals with their own rights. They are no more "his people" than we are "Obamas people" or previously "Bush's people".

[virgogal]

4. If I reach this stage of cancer,with a couple of miserable months ahead

of me,I'm outta here.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Single source reports

are sometimes to be found to be iffy.