So You Think You Can Die?

Since he first took power back in 1999, the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has been pushing the end of his term further and further into future. First, he drafted a new constitution that increased terms from five- to seven-years with the possibility of one immediate reelection. In those days, he claimed he would leave after 2014 and then he amended the new constitution to include indefinite reelections in a complete, obvious, and shameless power grab. His new planned departure date? 2021. In reality you may want to invert the last two digits. Mr. Chavez’s health is once again in question.

No doubt Mr. Chávez wanted to indefinitely perpetuate his stay in power and he may have done just that. It’s just that in his case, indefinitely may end a lot sooner than he expected. I have often doubted the sincerity of the pronouncements about Chavez’s ailments and have wondered if everything was just a ploy to touch the heart of his eroding base, but the overwhelming amount of information is now decisively telling otherwise.

Earlier this month, the Venezuelan president gave an unusually short (by Chavez standards) televised speech announcing the return of his cancer and his plans to return to Cuba for another operation and further treatment. Spanish newspaper ABC reported in its online edition that Mr. Chavez has had some very rough episodes and that chemotherapy is no longer option. It further reported that a medical team was flown from Russia to Cuba in order to provide Mr. Chavez with the best hospice care the Venezuelan treasury can buy.

In his speech to the Venezuelan people, Mr. Chavez stated that if he is momentarily impaired, Vice President Nicolas Maduro will take over his position and move the revolutionary process forward … Whatever that means. Maduro, the eighth and last of the VPS secured under Chavez, is a taciturn former bus driver whose prior service as Foreign Minister can at best be described as lackluster. It is curious that Chavez felt the necessity to publicly make such a statement considering that the constitution in its 23rd article establishes exactly that.

Chavez may be seeing in his last days what has been obvious for the rest of us for a while now: Chavez death will be also the death of his revolution. There are too many strong men lurking in the wings to take over for the dying president and they most likely will cancel each other out. Incidentally, Maduro is not one of them.

In the meantime, some of the 1.2 million Venezuelans living abroad are wondering what to do once Chavez is finally a memory. Would they go back? Would they stay in their new countries building on their new lives? If you are a Venezuelan, we would love to read your opinion and know what you intend to do and why.

Follow Latinzine and Legal Alien on Facebook.

You can read a version of this note in Spanish in MSN Latino Noticias