Our (sick) man in Havana
Jul 19th 2011, 11:37 by P.G. | CARACAS
THE Venezuelan constitution guarantees citizens the right to "timely,
accurate and impartial information". But as Hugo Chávez, the president,
departed at the weekend to resume his cancer treatment in Havana, Cuba,
his followers and adversaries alike were once again left with more
questions than answers regarding the vital issue of the moment: just how
ill is the president, and what is his prognosis?
According to the official version, Mr Chávez underwent emergency surgery
for a "pelvic abscess" in early June, after symptoms emerged during a
routine visit to Cuba. It was not until June 30th that he announced, via
a 15-minute recorded video, what some journalists had been claiming for
some time: that a second operation had removed a cancerous tumour.
Before the country had had time to recover from the shock—not only of
the news itself but also of the president's much-deteriorated
appearance—Mr Chávez arrived unannounced in Caracas in the early hours
of July 4th. Since then, in a series of (by his standards) brief media
appearances, he has gradually revealed more details of his condition.
But he has not released a single medical bulletin, or even revealed the
precise location of the tumour.
His return to Cuba, after less than a fortnight in Venezuela, suggests
that secrecy is a major consideration. Brazil has offered him treatment
at a hospital in São Paulo where both its own president, Dilma Rousseff,
and Fernando Lugo, the president of Paraguay, received successful cancer
therapy. And the Venezuelan medical profession is understandably
offended that Mr Chávez feels he is better off outside the country. But
in the tightly-controlled environment of communist Cuba, the information
blackout is less easily breached.
The president insists that "not a single malignant cell" has been found
anywhere else in his body. But he admits that he will require
chemotherapy, contrary to what some of those close to him had insisted
previously. He requested permission from the legislature to leave the
country for "more than five days" and gave no date of return. And for
the first time, he has delegated some of his authority, to Elías Jaua,
the vice-president, and Jorge Giordani, the finance and planning
minister—both civilians intensely loyal to Mr Chávez, and considered to
be on the radical wing of his "revolution". Their powers will be
predominantly administrative and budgetary, although the vice-president
will be able to sign expropriation decrees in consultation with Mr
Chávez. The president will retain control of the army and the power to
appoint or dismiss ministers or decree states of emergency.
The opposition continues to insist that the country cannot be run from
abroad. The constitution holds that the vice-president must stand in
when the president is "temporarily absent". But government legislators
argue that this is merely an opposition ploy to gradually ease Mr Chávez
from power. To judge by the number of presidential exhortations in
recent weeks concerning the need for unity, both in the ruling party and
in the military, there is considerable concern that any relaxation of
the presidential grip would lead to unseemly jostling for power.
The indefinite absence of the president would be a matter of concern in
any country. But Mr Chávez exercises unprecedented de facto control over
all of Venezuela's institutions. In an apparent bid to show that he will
remain in full control, just before he left, the president created an
electronic signature on live television for use while he is away. But it
will take more than that to dispel the doubts over his ability to
micro-manage the affairs of state from a Cuban hospital. Venezuela's
stability is now inextricably bound up with the progress of the
president's illness. Treating that as a state secret is unlikely to work
for long, so the government must hope for a rapid, and visible, improvement.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2011/07/hugo-ch%C3%A1vezs-venezuela
No comments:
Post a Comment