Talk of Chavez cancer downturn rattles Venezuela

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s absence from the spotlight, his creation of a formal advisory committee, and media leaks of medical details are feeding speculation of a downturn in his nearly year-long battle with cancer.

With a presidential election looming for Oct. 7 in the OPEC nation ruled by Chavez since 1999, Venezuelans are obsessively focused on his condition and fretting about the consequences of a possible succession struggle.

Should the rumours be true – and they are fiercely denied by government officials – an end to the Chavez era would shake Venezuela and have major repercussions around Latin America where leftist allies like Cuba depend on his oil-fuelled largesse.

Spending most of the last six weeks in Havana for radiotherapy treatment, Chavez has only been seen once live in public since mid-April – and he ended that short address on Monday choking on his words and with tears in his eyes. “These are not easy days, but we are warriors,” he said. That image has stuck in Venezuelans’ minds, echoing a Mass last month where Chavez wept and asked God to spare his life.

Further stoking the rumour-mill, Chavez this week created a new Council of State, intended to act as an advisory committee. It is composed of veteran loyalists including a military officer and octogenarian confidant Jose Vicente Rangel.

Chavez’s first task for the council, which looks similar to a body by the same name in communist-run Cuba, is to study his recommendation that Venezuela leave an Americas-wide regional human rights court.

Yet some media, politicians and analysts suspect it may also be a mechanism Chavez wants ready to work out a potential transition, and possible mediation between competing factors of the ruling Socialist Party, military and opposition.

Adding to the uncertainty, some pro-opposition journalists are constantly feeding into the public arena deeply personal details of Chavez’s treatment, based, they say, on medical sources close to or within the team of doctors treating him. The best-known, columnist and radio talk-show host Nelson Bocaranda, said this week that Chavez had plunged into depression over bad news on his prognosis, and was suffering severe pain from both the treatment and the spreading disease.

In his latest column, Bocaranda said radiotherapy in Cuba had caused a fracture in Chavez’s femur. The journalist said a photo of Chavez’s arrival in Cuba on Monday was carefully staged to avoid showing a wheelchair and walking stick.

“Everyone around him knows that tough times are coming,” wrote Bocaranda, who has a massive readership but has become a hate figure for Chavez officials.

Since being diagnosed with cancer in mid-2011, and while undergoing three operations to remove malignant tumors in his pelvic region plus both chemotherapy and radiation treatment, Chavez has always poured scorn on speculation of his demise.