Venezuela mocks Chavez death rumours
2013-03-01 22:06
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Caracas - Hugo Chavez's son-in-law mocked this week's
crescendo of rumours that the Venezuelan president may be dead or dying from
the cancer he has been treated for since mid-2011.
"The launching of absurd and bizarre rumours by the
right wing simply discredits them and isolates them further from the
people," wrote Jorge Arreaza, who is also Venezuela's science minister, on
his Twitter account late on Thursday.
Speculation about Chavez, 58, reached a fever pitch this
week, fed in part by assertions from Panama's former ambassador to the Organisation
of American States (OAS), Guillermo Cochez, to media that the Venezuelan leader
had died.
Apart from one set of photos showing Chavez in a hospital
bed, he has not been seen or heard from in public since 11 December cancer
surgery in Cuba, his fourth such operation.
He returned to a military hospital in Caracas last week.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, now Venezuela's de facto leader
and Chavez's preferred successor, repeated several times during the week that
the president was "fighting for his life" and urged Venezuelans to be
patient with the situation.
Opposition politicians say the government is being
deceitful about the president's real condition.
On the street, Venezuelans are extremely anxious,
endlessly speculating over Chavez's state and wondering what the potential end
of his 14-year rule might mean for them.
