General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: No progressives should be demanding new elections in Venezuela due to Chavez' health... [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)is going on with the guy, and wondering isn't "wanting" VZ to "move further right." It is what it is--where the hell IS the guy? Why hasn't a single photo been taken of him? Why is there no video with the sound stripped out, like there has been every other time he's gone to Cuba?
When a SOP changes--and Hugo has made this trek at least four times--people DO notice.
It's getting ghoulish because the odds are becoming increasingly likely that the guy is either on life support or brain dead, and the reason many people are thinking this is because there's not one lousy picture of him sitting or even laying in bed looking at Maduro while they hold hands and talk about telling the people of VZ the "whole truth."
I mean, come on--this is horrible, lousy, shitty propaganda, and even the most faithful and ardent Chavistas on the street are smelling a large rodent and anticipating bad news.
This isn't the same as Allende, and Capriles isn't a shoo-in by a long shot. Old God Given Goodhair Cabello -- who is on the Chavez team and a former military pal of Hugo's--could be the winner over the handpicked successor. It's way too soon to even speculate on those aspects; they don't have their shit together vis a vis succession, yet.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/01/201317131121971125.html
If Chavez were to die, Cabello would hold the post of interim president and new elections would need to be called within 30 days.
Venezuela's constitutional law on succession could put Cabello at odds with Nicolas Maduro, the vice-president, and the man Chavez has tipped as his chosen successor.
What needs to be "faced" is that something is WRONG WITH CHAVEZ. He's either very sick or dead and not talking about it isn't going to change that one whit.