Chavez suffers new health setback, Venezuela in trouble
1 Jan 2013 5:47 AM IST
Venezuela plunged into political uncertainty on Monday after the government announced that President Hugo Chavez had suffered a new setback after cancer surgery in Cuba and the situation he was facing was ‘tough.’
‘We have been informed of new complications that arose as a consequence of the respiratory infection we already knew about,’ Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday in a television and radio broadcast from Havana, where Chavez underwent his operation. Cuba is Chavez's closest regional ally.
‘President Chavez's condition is still delicate,’ Maduro added, warning that the complications ‘are being treated in a process that is not without its risks.’
Chavez, the face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a firebrand critic of 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.
Maduro, who said he had spoken with Chavez about his health complications and national affairs, added that the president was facing a ‘tough situation.’
‘Comandante Chavez particularly wanted us to relay his New Year's greetings to every Venezuelan family who are gathered together across the country at this time,’ Maduro said.
The vice president said he would stay in Havana in the coming hours with Chavez and his family to ‘closely’ follow his progress.
‘We trust that the global outpouring of love’ for the Venezuelan leader will help him heal, said Maduro.
He was in Cuba with Rosa Virginia Chavez 0151 one of the president's daughters 0151 Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza and top Prosecutor Cilia Flores.
In a Twitter message, the president's second daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez thanked Venezuelans for their expressions of support, adding that the people ‘have always been our greatest strength.’
‘We have been informed of new complications that arose as a consequence of the respiratory infection we already knew about,’ Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday in a television and radio broadcast from Havana, where Chavez underwent his operation. Cuba is Chavez's closest regional ally.
‘President Chavez's condition is still delicate,’ Maduro added, warning that the complications ‘are being treated in a process that is not without its risks.’
Chavez, the face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a firebrand critic of 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.
Maduro, who said he had spoken with Chavez about his health complications and national affairs, added that the president was facing a ‘tough situation.’
‘Comandante Chavez particularly wanted us to relay his New Year's greetings to every Venezuelan family who are gathered together across the country at this time,’ Maduro said.
The vice president said he would stay in Havana in the coming hours with Chavez and his family to ‘closely’ follow his progress.
‘We trust that the global outpouring of love’ for the Venezuelan leader will help him heal, said Maduro.
He was in Cuba with Rosa Virginia Chavez 0151 one of the president's daughters 0151 Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza and top Prosecutor Cilia Flores.
In a Twitter message, the president's second daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez thanked Venezuelans for their expressions of support, adding that the people ‘have always been our greatest strength.’
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