By Nestor Rojas Mavares Aug 2, 2011, 2:06 GMT
Caracas - Adan Chavez enjoys the trust of his younger brother to the
point where he is being tipped as a likely successor to ailing
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
President Chavez, currently battling cancer, has even joked in public
about Adan being the 'successor,' although opposition leaders have said
such remarks could merely be part of the president's provocative style.
Nevertheless, the president's admission that he is fighting cancer has
sparked doubts about whether he will be able to stand for re-election in
2012 and raised the real possibility of his elder brother taking his place.
Adan Chavez is regarded as the president's most faithful collaborator.
The governor of the Chavez family's home state of Barinas is seen as an
educated and reserved man who lacks Hugo's charisma.
Some are already calling him the 'Venezuelan Raul,' in reference to
Cuban President Raul Castro, who took over the reins from his brother
Fidel five years ago.
Adan Chavez has been appearing in public more often since it was
announced a month ago that the president had undergone cancer surgery
and chemotherapy in Cuba.
Hugo Chavez even asked his brother whether he was preparing to step into
is shoes during a televised broadcast to the nation last week. He noted
that Adan appeared to have groomed himself very well.
'Are you preparing for the succession?' the president asked. 'I can see
you are...you look so nicely shaven. Did you have (cosmetic) surgery?'
However, the president sought to dispel rumours of a family handover of
power. 'They have now started saying Adan would become my successor,
then they said my daughter Maria Gabriela would also become my
successor, but let them not meddle with Maria,' he said.
'I am going to stand in the 2012 elections and I will win again,' Chavez
said.
When the president celebrated his 57th birthday last week, his brother
Adan sang to him from Barinas - an act widely interpreted as a way to
present the 'successor' on official television.
'Congratulations dear brother, dear comrade, president,' Adan said while
announcing a string of cultural performances to mark the occasion.
Adan is widely regarded as the regime's best candidate in the event that
Hugo Chavez is unable to contest the presidential election next year.
This comes despite a controversy in June - when rumours over the
president's state of health were rife - over the Barinas governor's
warning of a possible armed struggle.
Venezuela's revolution was born as Spain's former colonies in Latin
America celebrated the bicentenary of their liberation, Adan Chavez said
in a serious tone in Barinas.
'It took place through elections, and we want to hold that course, a
peaceful course which allows us to build Bolivarian Socialism,' he said.
He noted, however, that the government remained conscious of 'the
dangers that lie ahead' and that the 'enemy does not rest.'
'As real revolutionaries, we should not forget other methods of battle,'
Chavez said in his Barinas speech.
The secretary of the opposition alliance Mesa de Unidad said the
president's brother had been mistaken in raising the possibility of
armed violence.
'He is wrong in implying that there could be a way other than the
democratic one, because Venezuelans are a democratic people,' Ramon
Guillermo Aveledo said. The governor of Barinas did not respond.
Adan Chavez held a string of key government posts, including education
minister and ambassador to Havana, before being elected governor of
Barinas in 2008.
President Chavez has acknowledged that it was his brother Adan who
introduced him to left-wing writings and ideology.
Adan Chavez studied physics at Los Andes University then taught
mathematics at secondary schools and universities.
He became drawn to left-wing groups in western Venezuela as a young man,
at a time when guerrilla movements were being extinguished.
Adan joined the Party of the Venezuelan Revolution, headed by the former
guerrilla leader Douglas Bravo, while his brother Hugo joined the army.
He later maintained contacts with leftist groups that were involved in
the failed coup attempt that Hugo Chavez led in 1992.
Adan Chavez is one of the founders of the president's United Socialist
Party of Venezuela.
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