No Chavez running mate in Venezuela despite cancer

Posted on Saturday, 09.15.12
No Chavez running mate in Venezuela despite cancer
By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela -- When he takes the stage at campaign rallies, Hugo
Chavez stands alone.

Under Venezuela's election system, presidential hopefuls don't choose
running mates, and that raises few eyebrows in normal years.

But this has not been a normal year. President Chavez has been fighting
a mysterious cancer, and the lack of a prospective No. 2 has left voters
wondering who in fact would take over were Chavez to win next month's
elections but be forced to leave office prematurely.

Nearly alone among South American nations, Venezuelan law leaves
designation of a vice president until after the new leader is sworn in.
It did not even have a vice president until 1999, when the office was
created in a new constitution promoted by Chavez.

Campaigning against youthful challenger Henrique Capriles, Chavez seldom
mentions his health problems, which over the past 15 months have
required frequent trips to Cuba for three surgeries, chemotherapy and
radiation treatments. When asked about his health last week, Chavez said
his last checkup in June showed he was cancer-free and "everything will
be fine."

Still, even some loyal Chavez supporters who plan to vote for him on
Oct. 7 acknowledge feeling uneasy about the uncertainty.

"Who would take his place? Nobody knows, and that's makes me worry,"
said Maria Lovera, a street vendor selling household cleaning supplies
on a street corner.

"I love Chavez and I want him to remain in power for many more years,
but I must confess that some people like me have suspicions that he
hasn't told us the whole truth about his cancer," Lovera said. "The
possibility of him getting sick again and having to step down exists."

Some say identifying a vice president now could cause divisions within
Chavez's movement by favoring one faction over another.

And because none of Chavez's possible vice presidential candidates have
anywhere near his popularity, choosing one might alienate some sectors
within his movement or prove less appealing to voters still on the fence.

"He is aware that if he appoints the VP (ahead of the vote), that would
trigger divisions and increase uncertainties," said Diego Moya-Ocampos,
an analyst with the consulting firm IHS Global Insight in London.

Capriles has not named a likely vice president either, though the issue
is less pressing because there are no questions about the 40-year-old's
health.

"Capriles, like Chavez wants to make this a contest between the two
figures," said Miguel Tinker Salas, a Latin American studies professor
at Pomona College in Claremont, California. For both candidates, he
said, to name a vice president now "would detract from this strategy."

Under Chavez, the vice presidency has been an office of limited
authority. In fact, the country's constitution doesn't even specify how
soon a president must name a vice president after winning office.

Chavez has delegated little to his vice presidents over the years,
instead using his deputy as one in a team of aides who largely carry out
his instructions. Even when he was forced to scale back his work due to
taxing cancer treatments in Cuba, Chavez delegated only minimal
administrative duties to current Vice President Elias Jaua, whom he
appointed in 2010, the seventh man to hold that post during the
socialist leader's 13 years in office.

Venezuela's Constitution says that if a president-elect dies before
taking office, new elections would be called. If a president dies during
the first four years of the term, the vice president would temporarily
take over, but a new election would be held. If a president dies during
the last two years of the six-year term, the vice president would finish
the term and the next election would be held as planned.

In most South American countries vice presidents are elected at the same
time as the top of the ticket. In Chile, however, presidential
candidates run for office alone, but once in office name an interior
minister who serves as vice president when necessary.

As for which ally Chavez might pick as his deputy if re-elected,
speculation in recent months has ranged widely across figures such as
Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado
Cabello.

Throughout his presidency, Chavez's closest confidants have been
characterized by their lack of an independent following, a relative lack
of charisma and military-like allegiance to their leader, a former army
paratroop commander.

Moya-Ocampos said the vice-presidential mystery is by design. By saving
any talk of his choice for later, he said, Chavez aims to send a simple
message, "that there is no clear successor."

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/15/3003974/no-chavez-running-mate-in-venezuela.html