allegedly gave him cancer
“Allegedly” Alleged by whom?
I understand that you are making a joke, but at the same time you’re perpetuating a falsehood (started by the media and now widely accepted as true) intended to discredit the Venezuelan President and paint a false image of him as paranoid and deranged. As Hugo Chavez himself made clear, responding to the hysteria in the international press last December: “I have not accused anyone of inducing cancer”, noting that he “just made a reflection” on the strange coincidence that several leaders in the region had been diagnosed with cancer, and that these cancer-striken leaders all just happen to be leftists. If you read what he actually said, you’ll see Chavez went out of his way to say he wasn’t making any accusations, and that doing so would be “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
Edit: Downvoted for correcting a widespread misconception? Then why do I even bother?
I thought cancer spreading to the bones was more characteristic of late stage.
First, though I am no medical expert, I believe you are correct. If Chavez’s cancer had spread to his bones, it would mean “Chavez’s cancer has ‘entered the end stage’” (Dan Rather).
It should have been more clear in the article that it was citing a conflicting news report that has come out about Chavez’s health (one at odds with what Chavez or the government have said).
The
newspaper [ABC] did not divulge its sources or detail how it checked the information’s accuracy, and
CNN was unable to verify the report. An official in Venezuela’s information ministry said the newspaper’s report was invalid and the government would not comment on its contents. (
CNN)
Chavez has consistently denied reports that his illness was advanced. Though he has stopped short of declaring himself “cancer free” (as he did last year), Chavez is saying that medical tests following his cancer treatment (three operations to remove tumors from his ‘pelvic region’, and about a dozen rounds of chemotherapy, and radiation therapy) show that he is in good health.
It is true Chavez has not released his medical records; nor has he provided full details about his medical condition and history. His political opponents won’t be satisfied until they can confirm that one of the tumors Chavez had removed from his pelvis was, in fact, the “size of a baseball”.
Chavez insists he is fit enough to run for re-election in October. Two-thirds of Venezuelans believe he will recover, and he is currently holding a double-digit lead over his opponent. Of course, no one can know whether, if re-elected, he will remain healthy for long enough to serve out what would be his third consecutive six-year term, through to 2019! But we hope so.
It seems to me that officials in Chavez’s Socialist Party are justified in fearing that the opposition–by beginning to cast suspicion on opinion polls AND the election results–is preparing to cry fraud and may even seek to destabilize the country if Capriles loses. It’s widely known that Capriles represents the opposition’s best chance to take power electorally, so his loss would likely send the opposition back to its extra-institutional strategies. Chavez has promised to accept the results of the election, even if he loses; the opposition hasn’t!
As for polls and other methods of finding how people will vote, those dont work there.
Why don’t they work? Is there something about Venezuelan culture, society, that makes polls not work? Or do you just think that because they don’t show the results that you want? Please. Of course, you should be skeptical about giving too much weight to any one poll, but it’s usually safe to observe the general trend.
In the past, only a few polls have incorrectly predicted the results of an election. The ones that were wrong were wrong only because they under-estimated the levels of Chavez’s support! For instance, a Reuter’s article on Venezuela’s ‘poll wars’ from this week notes that “Chavez won his first election in 1998 despite trailing in the run-up to the vote, and he was behind in the polls before winning the recall referendum.” (So the polls that were wrong, in the past, were polls biased against Chavez, in favor of the anti-Chavez opposition!)
Moreover, there is not a single poll showing Capriles in the lead. Only one poll ever showed Capriles anywhere close to Chavez. The vast majority give Chavez a lead of 15 points or more (up to 30%). What is more important, however, is that most recent polls show Chavez’s lead has been widening, suggesting a lack of momentum for the Capriles campaign, an inability to close the electoral gap between himself and the President. (Also, consider the fact that these opinion polls were conducted while Chavez was lying in a hospital bed, in Cuba, while Capriles was touring the country, ‘door-to-door’. All this before Chavez even started to campaign!)
A few weeks ago, a prominent opposition journalist Rafael Poleo conceded that Chavez would be re-elected. He wrote: “Chavismo has taken the place in the heart of the people which AD and Copei [the two parties that shared power for forty years] have vacated”. The longer the opposition denies this, the worse things will be.
There’s an explanation for this: the corporate newsmedia, and the reddit contributers who love them, go completely apeshit every time they see a chance to portray President Chavez in a negative light. In the last 24 hours, by blowing out of proportion Chavez’s reflections ON THE FACT that several leaders in the region (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, etc.) have been diagnosed with cancer, and ON THE STRANGE COINCIDENCE that these cancer-striken leaders all just happen to be leftists, Chavez’s opponents are painting Hugo Chavez as paranoid and deranged! But what is often overlooked or ignored by many news readers is that Chavez DOES NOT (ever) ACCUSE ANYONE (such as the U.S.) OF actually INDUCING CANCER!
Responding to the hysterical reaction in the international press, Chavez has clarified his original comments by saying he was merely reflecting on the unfortunate coincidence that Latin America’s left-leaning leaders are all so busy taking care of their health, they have been unable to work together in the ways he had hoped. Since some have had to pull out of important meetings dealing with the development of regional blocs between countries that exclude or oppose the United States as a member, the U.S. has benefited from their absence.
CLARIFICATION: The Venezuelan President “HAS NOT ACCUSED ANYONE OF INDUCING CANCER.” Responding to the hysteria incited by the American press, Hugo Chavez explains he “just made a reflection” about THE FACT that several leaders of South America have been diagnosed with cancer. (This has caused many problems, not the least of which have to do with the scheduling of meetings dealing of various regional blocs of Latin American countries (like MERCOSUR, UNASUL or the new CELAC); it is vital that all regional leaders attend because many decisions are made by consensus.). It’s a strange coincidence, is it not? In other words, one could say that Chavez was doing little more than offering a joke; however, given that he is undoubtedly all too aware of the history of the U.S.’s nefarious activities in Latin America (which have included various assassination plots), Chavez isn’t exactly in the mood to laugh about such possibilities, no matter how far-fetched they might seem.
As a grad student always scanning news reports for information on Venezuela, I was blown away by the HUNDREDS of news articles published today about these comments, taken out of context; the media clearly rushes at the chance to depict the Venezuelan President as paranoid and deranged. Whose interests do the media serve when they so uniformly distribute misleading propaganda in an obvious attempt to mock and delegitimize the democratically elected leaders of foreign countries? For shame!