ANDREW CAWTHORNE
CARACAS— Reuters
Published Thursday, Mar. 08, 2012 9:05PM EST
Derided as a "liar" and "clown" by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's
allies, a bespectacled 66-year-old journalist has defied the verbal
barrage to become a must-read for anyone tracking the Venezuelan
leader's cancer.
Veteran reporter and gossip-columnist Nelson Bocaranda broke the
stunning news in mid-2011 that Mr. Chavez, the country's all-dominant
socialist leader, had the disease.
He followed up last month with another scoop on the President's return
to Cuba for new treatment after a recurrence of cancer, a massive
setback for the 57-year-old populist ahead of his campaign for
re-election in an October vote.
With a daily drip-drip of rumours and details about Mr. Chavez's
condition, the openly pro-opposition Mr. Bocaranda has garnered more
than 670,000 followers via his two Twitter accounts.
That prominence has made him a hate figure for Chavez supporters.
"They call me a homosexual, a cocaine addict, a son of a bitch. I ignore
it and laugh," he said, speaking from the studios of Union Radio where
he has his own evening chat show.
As well as insults, Mr. Bocaranda's investigative work on Mr. Chavez's
health has brought him more fame than at any point in a half-century
media career spanning back to when he was 16.
Diplomats, investors, analysts and government officials around Latin
America are, like so many Venezuelans, turning to his runrunes (murmurs)
given that the government is treating the matter like a state secret.
In Cuba after his latest treatment, Mr. Chavez is the only one giving
official information about his health. He says he has had two cancerous
tumours removed from the pelvic region and now needs radiation treatment.
Though Mr. Chavez insists he is recovering quickly and will be fit for
the presidential election campaign and Oct. 7 vote, he claimed wrongly
last year to be completely cured, so many Venezuelans are skeptical and
there are rumours the cancer has spread.
Since Mr. Chavez confirmed his cancer in June of 2011 – after Mr.
Bocaranda's reports that officials had dismissed – the veteran
journalist says he has developed even more Venezuelan government
sources, mid- and lower-level officials defying the official policy of
silence.
"They feel bad that people are never told the truth," said Mr.
Bocaranda, wearing a newly made T-shirt proclaiming "I don't know" to
satirize the furor over his reports on the President's health.
Others at the radio station had shirts saying "Me neither."
Mr. Bocaranda is coy of giving future predictions, saying he prefers to
stick to what he knows is happening in the present.
"Clearly the radiotherapy is going to depress him, it's going to really
bring him down," he said, adding that Chavez allies are desperately
worried about the impact of a sick candidate campaigning for re-election.
A jovial, fast-talking man who loves a joke, Mr. Bocaranda does,
however, have serious concerns for his safety. He warned in a column
this week that the state would be responsible for anything that happens
to him or his family.
"I wanted to announce it because I'd been hearing this from three
different sources," he said.
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