Venezuela making 'bald-faced lies' over Chavez: opposition

[MADem]

1. If he's signing and cracking, he could make an audio tape.

What the Spanish press has reported is that he's on a respirator, he was in a coma (unclear if that is still "operative&quot , and he's lost upwards of forty pounds.

I do not think the opposition's ire is unreasonable. I think if Obama disappeared to the UK for almost two months, with no pictures, no audio, no nothing save assurances from Joe Biden that "Oh, he's fine, he's cracking jokes and signing documents" we wouldn't buy that bullshit. Hell, we wouldn't buy that bullshit for three days, never mind a month and a half.

Even the NYT is starting to smell a rat, as this headline (said to be Chavez's) suggests:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/world/americas/letter-said-to-be-from-chavez-read-at-summit-meeting.html

His silence has led to widespread speculation that he may be dying or that his illness is so severe that he may not be able to function as president. But government officials who have shuttled to Cuba insist that Mr. Chávez is instructing them and is in charge.

The opposition criticized the government over the weekend, after officials announced that they would read the letter from Mr. Chávez at the summit meeting.


“Someone who can sign letters and crack jokes, can’t he speak to the country?” Henrique Capriles, the opposition candidate who lost to Mr. Chávez in the October election, said on Sunday, referring to recent comments by the newly appointed foreign minister, Elías Jaua, who said that he had visited Mr. Chávez and that the two had joked and laughed. Mr. Capriles, a state governor, was quoted in the newspaper El Nacional on Monday.

While officials have previously delivered messages that they say came from Mr. Chávez, Monday’s letter, signed in red ink, was the longest.

I really think the "handlers" stepped on it with this letter--it's absurd that Chavez has time to write eleven page, flowery letters, but can't do a five minute audio speech to his own people. I wouldn't be surprised if someone in his host country helped to write that little letter, particularly since it is a letter (a damn chapter) that is to their benefit.

I am reminded of that Weekend at Bernie's film--I think this is a disgrace; and entirely unbelievable.