Demands by the opposition for information on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s health grew louder on Monday and bond prices rallied on speculation the socialist leader could be seriously ill.
The firebrand former soldier has not been seen in public since an operation in Cuba to remove an abscess from his pelvis on June 10, fueling a torrent of rumors and uncertainty roiling South America’s biggest oil exporter.
The government says he is fine, some rivals believe he has prostate cancer and others suspect it is all a strategy for him to return triumphant to Venezuela to host a regional summit on the country’s 200th anniversary of independence.
Opposition politicians, who will try to topple Chavez at an election next year, accuse the government of neglecting its constitutional duty to tell the people what is going on.
“After 21 days of Chavez’s absence, the country is getting worse and the government remains abysmal,” former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales said in a statement. “The nation needs a clear message that will end this national and international speculation, as well as the discomfort and suspicion caused by the mysterious silence.”
The saga has underlined the famously workaholic and -baseball-loving 56-year-old’s total dominance of politics, as well as the lack of any obvious successor.
A senior Venezuelan government source said that Cuban surgeons had operated on the president before peritonitis — a nonfatal inflammation of the lining of the abdomen — could develop, and that he was recuperating very well.
Amid the contradictory reports and the allegations flying among Venezuela’s political players, some experts highlighted the lack of specific information.
“In terms of impact on Venezuelan debt, some see Chavez’s health and his ability to run for re-election as binary, while others are more cautious, uncertain of the implications of a potential power vacuum,” one Wall Street analyst said.
Chavez is due to host the regional summit on the Caribbean island of Margarita on Sunday and Monday, which coincides with Venezuela’s 200th anniversary of independence from Spain on Sunday.
And some see the silence surrounding his absence as a strategy to build up media attention ahead of that meeting. The only photos released of Chavez from Havana showed him sitting in a Venezuelan-flag tracksuit with his mentor, former Cuban president Fidel Castro.
Russ Dallen, head trader at BBO Financial in Caracas, pointed out that both leaders were charismatic “showmen” who had disappeared in the past, waiting for supporters to clamor for their return before making an appearance.
“Did Chavez really have an operation? Probably. But wouldn’t his and Cuba’s government be trying to cover it up if there was something really to worry about — running previously unreleased tapes or soundtracks? Or more pictures,” he said.
Henrique Capriles Radonski, the opposition front-runner for next year’s polls, said he also believed the mystery over the president’s health could be a ploy to maximize political gain from a triumphant return for the emotive anniversary.
“I picture him coming back saying the gringo media had him dead and the Venezuelan opposition wished [for] his death. It’s quite the reverse, and I say it as an aspirant to the post,” Capriles said in an interview.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese