Venezuela's Chavez Might Not Make It To 2012 Elections

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez appears with a new hair cut due to his cancer treatment during a cabinet meeting at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, August 1, 2011. Reuters

Hugo Chavez's Big Lie -- Roger Noriega, FOX News

The international medical team treating Venezuela’s cancer-ridden leader Hugo Chávez believe that, absent a radical change in his condition, he is not likely to survive more than six months. According to sources that have provided me privileged information and documents from within the Venezuelan regime for many months, recent tests show that Chávez’s cancer is accelerating and his chances of surviving until the October 2012 presidential elections are worsening.

This sobering prognosis is a dilemma for Caracas, where Chavista leaders are afraid that their fiercest followers will feel betrayed when they learn his claim to be “cancer-free” turns out to be a big lie. Meanwhile, Washington policy makers appear unprepared to deal with the chaos that will ensue as the most corrupt members of the Chávez regime plot to retain power at all costs and as the state-run economy collapses.

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My Comment: I have seen this played out before. When Soviet leaders were sick, the state media and the government went about this long and elaborate discussion that everything will be OK, and Brezhnev/Andropov/Chernenko/etc. .... they will all come back healthier and more active than before. Cough .... cough .... they all ended up dying.

Hugo Chavez has cancer, and a form that (if the rumors are true) is difficult to treat. Will he survive .... probably .... but also probably not. Either way .... as long as he continues his treatment .... which will probably be for a long time .... he can never function at 100%.