With Chavez sicker, Venezuela axes New Year party

[Zorro]

Source: AFP

Venezuela called off public New Year's Eve festivities on Monday and social media sizzled with worry after the government said cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez had taken a turn for the worse.

The streets of Caracas were quiet as front page headlines relayed that Chavez had developed "new complications" from a respiratory infection after undergoing his fourth cancer-related surgery, on December 11 in Havana.

His vice president and political heir, Nicolas Maduro, broke the news from Havana on Sunday night, saying the condition of the firebrand leader was delicate and that he faced an uphill battle.

Chavez, the face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a fierce critic of what he calls US imperialism, has been in power since 1999 in Venezuela, an OPEC member that sits on top of the world's largest proven oil reserves. He won a new six-year term in October elections.

Read more: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/chavez-suffers-post-op-setback-vp-005635285.html

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Interesting that the article quotes a pollster describing that a postponement of the constitutionally scheduled 10 January swearing-in ceremony would be an "institutional coup".

Aren't coups supposed to be bad?

[naaman fletcher]

1. It depends on one thing and one thing only..

If the outcome is against the wishes of the US it is good. If not, it is bad.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Venezuelans Offer Prayers, Songs for Hugo Chavez

Venezuelans Offer Prayers, Songs for Hugo Chavez
By By IAN JAMES Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela January 1, 2013 (AP)

~snip~
Venezuelans rang in the New Year as usual with fireworks raining down all over the capital of Caracas. But one government-organized outdoor party that had been scheduled in Bolivar Plaza with a lineup of Venezuela bands was canceled due to Chavez's precarious condition.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/venezuelans-offer-prayers-songs-hugo-chavez-18105793

[quadrature]

3. how to win friends and influence people ...

cancel New Years

[Judi Lynn]

4. It's relatively easy to grasp: Chavez did NOT cancel New Year's Eve.

If you have the time to read more than headlines, this article should help you focus on the truth. ONLY THE STATE-ORGANIZED CELEBRATION was cancelled. That would make sense in ANY country when the head of state is very ill.

Post #3, directly above yours is there for the reading:

Venezuelans Offer Prayers, Songs for Hugo Chavez
By By IAN JAMES Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela January 1, 2013 (AP)

~snip~
Venezuelans rang in the New Year as usual with fireworks raining down all over the capital of Caracas. But one government-organized outdoor party that had been scheduled in Bolivar Plaza with a lineup of Venezuela bands was canceled due to Chavez's precarious condition.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/venezuelans-offer-prayers-songs-hugo-chavez-18105793

[FrodosPet]

5. Sorry, cancelling an important celebration sounds more like a personality cult thing to do

Perhaps if he had actually passed, it would be understandable.

The people and the process should be more important than the person. PLEASE tell me that there will not be a mandatory mourning period, with executions for insufficient wailing, if and when Pres. Chavez passes.

[ronnie624]

6. There will be no executions for insufficient expressions of grief.

There will be a huge outpouring of genuine grief, when President Chavez dies. There will, no doubt, be some nasty expressions as well, and there will be no retribution taken by the government for them.

You know it's the truth. No one really needs to tell you. That fact does not speak positively to the honesty of your motive.

[Judi Lynn]

7. "Personality cult thing to do"? Is that right? Right-wingers toss that term around

like dogs playing with a dead animal remnant.

It is the DECENT thing to do when a government cancels a government-sponsored New Year's party when the head of state is very ill. It would be the correct thing to do in any country.

Instant gratification is NOT the highest goal of mankind. There are simply some situations which have serious aspects to them which can't be put aside for partaaaay time. The serious illness of the President would qualify.

I'm sure you would have been fit to be tied when the U.S.'s total tv coverage from morning to night for days concerned the assassination of John F. Kennedy. That probably would have really ticked you off. This entire country took it damned hard, and not one idiot raised the idea it was all a manifestation of a Kennedy "personality cult".

[FrodosPet]

8. The difference is that President Kennedy had passed

On the one hand, the world is being told that President Chavez is recovering, that only the ghouls believe he is gravely ill and his time to pass is coming soon.

On the other, we are hearing that he is sick enough that it is proper to disrupt the lives of the people.

So which is it? If he has not passed away, and is not close to it, why is the Venezuelan government basically taking a mourning stance?