Chavez to return to Cuba for cancer treatment

[rabs]

Source: Associated Press




CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced Friday that he will return to Cuba to begin a new phase of cancer treatment that will include chemotherapy.

Chavez said he was seeking legislative approval to go back to Havana on Saturday "to begin what we've called the second phase."

He said he was sending a letter to the president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Fernando Soto Rojas, to request immediate "legislative authorization" for his trip as required by the constitution. It was not clear how long Chavez planned to remain in Cuba.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ snip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He acknowledged on Wednesday for the first time that he expected to eventually undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment, saying such care would be to "armor the body against new malignant cells."



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/chavez-return-cuba-cancer-treatment-223642223.html

---

Reuters reported earlier today he would receive treatment in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Reuters jumped the gun and was wrong, again.

Now, sitting back with buttered popcorn to await the anti-Chavez folks.

[MADem]

1. Your last sentence smells like rather pathetic flame-bait to me.

That said, Chavez going back to Cuba cannot be good news for his health, no matter how anyone tries to spin it. Wasn't it just a few days ago that he returned home to great fanfare? He never said shit about turning around and going back to Havana...

Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, Hugo....

[joshcryer]

3. It'd be a big hub hub if he went to Brazil, the media would be camped out every day.

Cuba would be the only place he could go without prying eyes, imo.

[MADem]

5. You're probably right on that score.

I wonder if there will be a media anointing of Adan the elder brother, who does not have much in the way of a personality. He should probably spend his days in charm school, because I think he'll be next up to bat...

[rabs]

9. No, there will be no "anointing" of anyone ...

The constitution is clear about who replaces Chavez while he is absent.

------------------

Under the Venezuelan Constitution, a president may be permanently unavailable to serve by reason of permanent physical, mental or legal disability.

In such cases, the Venezuelan Constitution provides in Article 234 that "a president of the republic who becomes temporarily unavailable to serve shall be replaced by the executive vice-president for a period of up to 90 days, which may be extended by resolution of the National Assembly for additional 90 days."

However, if the temporary unavailability continues for more than 90 consecutive days, the National Assembly shall have the power to decide by a majority vote of its members whether the unavailability to serve should be considered permanent.

Article 235 of the Venezuelan Constitution reads as follows: "The absence of the president of the republic from the territory of Venezuela requires authorization from the National Assembly or the Delegated Committee, when such absence continues for a period exceeding five consecutive days."

[MADem]

14. DUH. I wasn't talking about a Constitutional "anointing"

I was talking about a MEDIA anointing, a PR media blitz to make people interested in/care about/develop a loyalty towards a dour and uninteresting person. If Chavez bites the bullet, I'll bet Big Brother will run for office.

That was my point. MEDIA, as I indicated... not Constitution.

[joshcryer]

2. The source for the Brazil story was a Brazilian government official.

Brazil had offered to give Chavez treatment for free in their world class treatment facilities.

[roody]

4. wishing him and all cancer patients well...

[Judi Lynn]

6. Cuba has been respected world wide (U.S. excluded, of course) for its excellent medical skills.

Very impressive people there in medicine, and medical research. Former President Jimmy Carter investigated their medical research laboratories which, according to U.S. right-wing lying a-holes, have been creating dual-use biological warfare products.

No doubt Hugo Chavez feels he wants to respect the bond he has with the ones who've brought him this far already after his 6 hour surgery.

Reuters' only business is supposed to be publishing the true story, isn't it? How long HAS it been since they really honored their profession, anyway?

If news organizations aren't offering the truth, they have no business in journalism. They are not being journalists, they're not respecting the human beings who depend upon them for the actual information they seek.
It IS a tremendous crime to not take painstaking care to print the truth at all times. Right wing organizations seem to believe whether or not the stories are real is none of our business. May they all boil in oil in US-patronized Uzbekistan.

On edit:
Recommending. Thank you.

[joshcryer]

7. So you have evidence that the Brazilian government official who was the source lied?

Or that Reuters lied about the source? Or that the source in Caracas lied that Chavez' family wanted him to go to Brazil?

How about the repeated lies given by the Venezuelan government about Chavez' condition? They kept that real secret for weeks there no? Oh right, that's OK.

[rabs]

11. The source for the Reuters story

is unknown. For all we know, that "source" was pulling Reuters' leg.

----------- From Reuters ----------------

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, will travel to Brazil for cancer treatment, a source in the Brazilian government has told Reuters news agency.

The Venezuelan President will come to Brazil's Sirio-Libanes hospital, but no timeline has been set for his arrival, the source said on Thursday.

There was no immediate confirmation from Venezuelan government. Asked if Chavez would go to Brazil for treatment, a high-ranking government official said: "I don't know."

-------------------

Also, nowhere in the story does it say that treatment in Brazil would be free, or that Chavez's family had asked him to go to Brazil.

[joshcryer]

13. For all we know the Venezuelan government sent out misinformation.

For all we know there was a miscommunication.

What we don't know is that Retuers "errored." They reported what the sources told them.

As far as the Brazil treatment thing it was http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/08/brazil-president-offers-cancer-treatment-to-chavez/">widely reported that it was offered. I wasn't saying that it was in this instance.

I think it's more likely that Chavez' people inquired about the offer for treatment and the official jumped the gun thinking that Chavez had chosen Brazil's state of the art cancer treatment facilities. Wow, no need for any sort of slander there, just a miscommunication.

[Cool Logic]

26. "...medical research?"

Where are the products of this research?

Have they invented an advanced form of MRI, formulated a breakthrough in pharmaceuticals, discovered the cure for cancer...?

[joshcryer]

30. Cure for cancer? Yes. Look up "ESCOZUL."

:rofl:

[Cool Logic]

37. According to a report by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons,

over 75 per cent of "doctors" with Cuban "medical degrees" flunk the exam given by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates for licensing in the U.S.

On the other had, with high-tech witch doctoring methods like ESCOZUL, we know why El Comandante's doctor is confident that he will live to be 140.

[Judi Lynn]

36. So you're proud of your lack of awareness of Cuban medical research?

The old "if I don't know it, it doesn't exist" trick?

Many of us had heard a LOT about this subject long, LONG ago. For you to attempt to launch an attack on me because YOU haven't heard of it, or claim you haven't, isn't an attractive way to solicit information, if you really wanted to know more, after all.

Where are the products of this research? This "alleged" research? Why not get off your ass and start doing your homework?

Here's an article posted here last January:

Cuba registers "world's first lung cancer vaccine" in Peru
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x47083

~~~~~
Cuba develops 'breakthrough' cancer drug
By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/06/27/4376358-cuba-develops-breakthrough-cancer-drug

~~~~~
Cuba Ailing? Not Its Biomedical Industry
Tom Fawthrop
The Straits Times, 26 January 2004

MENTION faraway Cuba and most people think of a Caribbean island best known for Havana cigars, rum and the revolutionary exploits of Che Guevara. They probably don't associate it with cutting edge medical research.

~snip~
Cuba pulled off its first scientific coup with the discovery of a new vaccine for meningitis B in the late 1980s. The vaccine controlled epidemics at home, and obtained good results abroad especially in Argentina and Brazil.

Havana's Carlos J. Finlay Institute has entered into a deal that allows major drug multinational GlaxoSmithKline to license its discovery in order to facilitate the first entry of a Cuban medical product into the more lucrative Western market.

More:
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/cuba-ailing-not-its-biomedical-industry

~~~~~
Page last updated at 06:39 GMT, Thursday, 26 March 2009
Cuba's cancer drug breakthrough
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7964933.stm


Cuba has registered in Peru what it claims is the world’s first lung cancer vaccine and is registering it in other South American countries.

The vaccine, called CIMAVAX-EGF, was first registered in 2008 in Cuba, where it was developed 15 years ago. More than a thousand Cuban patients were successfully treated by the vaccine, according to Gisela González, medical researcher from the Immunologic Molecular Center (CIM) in Havana.

Gonzalez describes CIMAVAX-EGF as derived from a protein produced by lung cancer. She said it is safe because patients who received the vaccine felt no side effects.

The vaccine prolongs a patient’s life after chemotherapy or radiotherapy by preventing cancer from returning.

More:
http://dev.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90030471?Cuba%20registering%20first%20lung%20cancer%20vaccine%20in%20South%20America

~~~~~
Americans Are Also Hurt by the U.S. Embargo of Cuba:
Medical Research, Clinical Trials, and Availability of
Cuban-Developed Drugs are Limited

July 6, 2001

This letter was accompanied by the Pugwash Issue Brief on Cuba and distributed to all members of the US House of Representatives.

Dear Colleague,

I would like to bring to your attention the June 2001 Issue Brief produced by the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, the 1995 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. This newsletter explores the effects of the U.S. embargo on US-Cuban medical cooperation. I especially encourage you to read the article by Dr. Kenneth R. Bridges, Director of the Joint Center for Sickle Cell and Thalassemic Disorders at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

As you know, drugs and medical devices developed by Cuba are not available to Americans. This includes vaccines for heart disease, cancer, hepatitis-B and meningitis-B, although for the latter a special protocol is being negotiated because the drug is so needed and desired by the U.S. medical and pharmaceutical community. Common areas of research requiring clinical trials, such as sickle cell disease, are also denied from engaging in joint clinical trials. Cuba has also developed fetal monitoring equipment that is being used in Canada, the United Kingdom and twenty other countries, but not the United States.

While only lifting the embargo will make these drugs, medical devices and opportunities for joint research truly available for all Americans, H.R. 2138, the Bridges to the Cuban People Act of 2001, takes important steps forward. For example, it would allow the import into the United States of Cuban-originated medical devices and medicines that are not commercially available in the U.S. already.

I encourage you to read the articles in the attached newsletter, and I encourage you to contact the offices of Representatives Jose Serrano and Jim Leach to become a cosponsor of H.R. 2138.

Sincerely,

James P. McGovern
Member of Congress

http://www.pugwash.org/reports/pim/pim38.htm

~~~~~
HEALTH NEWS FROM CUBA
Stem Cell Transplant Saves Patient's Leg
A team of Cuban specialists successfully transplanted stem cells which regenerated tissue to save the leg of 72-year old José Ramirez Espino. Diagnosed with a critical circulation problem requiring the amputation of his leg, Ramirez Espino received injections of stem cells taken from his bone marrow and was evidencing positive regenerative progress just 72 hours after the operation. This was the first clinical application of stem cells for tissue regeneration in the western hemisphere, according to Dr. Porfirion Hernández, deputy director of the Hematology and Immunology Institute of the Ministry of Public Health.

Cutting edge and highly complex, auto transplants are just one of the therapeutic applications Cuban scientists have developed from stem cell research (also see the related article "Back-to-Back Cellular Cardiac Transplants," below). In Ramirez Espino's case, some 300 million stem cells were harvested from his bone marrow, processed, and then injected into his leg muscle in an effort to treat an atherosclerosis condition with such serious circulatory problems that amputation of the leg was recommended. This successful auto transplant of stem cells validates recent studies that stem cells are able to develop cells of different tissues including muscles and blood vessels.

Stem cell research, whereby a cloned blastocyst is developed into a tissue culture to form a stem cell line for investigative purposes and therapeutic applications, has been embroiled in the highly controversial debate regarding reproductive and human cloning. The process of reproductive cloning, however, differs significantly in that the cloned blastocyst is implanted in a female's uterus where it develops until birth. See the article below, " Academy of Sciences Bans Reproductive Cloning, Supports Stem Cell Research" for the international scientific community's stand on the controversy.

Back-to-Back Cellular Cardiac Transplants
A double victory for clinical applications of stem cell research was achieved when the Cellular Therapy group led by cardiovascular surgeon Doctor José Hidalgo Díaz of the Havana Cardiology Institute, successfully implanted stem cells into the hearts of two separate patients.

More:
http://www.medicc.org/publications/medicc_review/V/23/pages/healthnewsfromcuba.html

~~~~~
July 25, 2004
The Sunday Observer
Dengue control: Experts fly to Cuba -- A team of medical experts will soon fly to Cuba to study its methods, including the effectiveness of 'Bacillus thuringien' (BT) bacteria, used by Cuba in eradicating dengue mosquito menace, Health and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told the 'Sunday Observer', yesterday.

July 24, 2004
People's Weekly World Newspaper
Cuba offers 'ray of light' in cancer battle -- For the first time a U.S. company signed an agreement with a Cuban firm to develop and test anti-cancer drugs. The U.S. government broke with its long-standing trade embargo and gave a green light to California-based CancerVax to enter into a deal with Havana’s Center for Molecular Immunology (CIMAB, SA).

July 15, 2004
Reuters
Cuba to Help Caribbean Fight AIDS -- Cuba offered on Thursday to build training centers for nurses to handle AIDS patients in Caribbean nations and provide antiretroviral drugs to fight the pandemic. Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque made the offer at a one-day meeting with counterparts from the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

July 05, 2004
The Dallas Morning News
Cuba Rules Scare Medical Students -- American medical students in Cuba have rushed back to the United States, missing their final exams, over fears that U.S. authorities will jail them, fine them thousands of dollars, or revoke their citizenship for studying medicine on the island. James Cason, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, said he wasn't aware the American students were cutting their educations short.

More:
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/cuba/foodAndMeds/updates.html

~~~~~
Effective meningitis vaccine produced in Cuba
Source: Science

23 July 2004 | EN

In what is being hailed as a major breakthrough in biotechnology, Cuban researchers report that their synthetic vaccine against the 'Hib' bacterium is ready for clinical testing. The Hib — or Haemophilus influenzae type B — bacterium causes meningitis and kills some 600,000 children a year in developing countries.

The vaccine is based on synthetic chains of simple sugars, which mimic those found on the surface of the bacteria. The Cuban-Canadian team pushed ahead for more than a decade to produce it, despite US embargoes and daunting technical difficulties.

Cuba researchers are also making progress with synthetic vaccines for pneumonia, among other diseases, while three Cuban cancer vaccines were licensed for use in the United States last week.

More:
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/effective-meningitis-vaccine-produced-in-cuba.html

~~~~~
The Costs of the Embargo (Cuba)
by Margot Pepper
www.dollarsandsense.org/, March/April 2009

~snip~
Beyond the economic costs, the blockade has deprived U.S. citizens of Cuba's medical breakthroughs. Cuba has developed the first meningitis B vaccine; treatments for the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa; a preservative for un-refrigerated milk; and PPG, a cholesterol-reducing drug gobbled up by foreigners for its side effect: increased sexual potency. And last summer Cuba released CimaVax EGF, the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer. The drug triggers an immune response that extends life in lung cancer patients and can ease breathing and restore appetite.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Cuba/Costs_Cuba_Embargo.html

~~~~~
Cuba Culture News and Information Cuban biotechnology working on diabetic ulcers
By Mary Murray | Producer | NBC News

~snip~
Cutting-edge medical research
It’s even luckier for Sobrino that he doesn’t work just anywhere. The 67-year old gardener tends the sprawling grounds at Havana’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), a 754,000 square-foot complex that forms the cutting edge of Cuba’s biotech industry, a priority for the Castro government since 1981.

Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the CIGB has produced an array of health care products for sale on the global pharmaceutical market including a “clot buster” for heart attack victims and a small yellow pill derived from sugarcane that lowers dangerous cholesterol and lipoproteins. In addition, the center claims to have produced the world’s only meningitis B vaccine.

Some U.S. officials have questioned the industry’s real purpose, alleging that it’s a façade for military research to manufacture biological weapons such as like anthrax and bubonic plague. Cuban scientists dismiss the charges, stating that their work is rooted in finding cures for many diseases.

CIGB’s 1,200 researchers are responsible for the lion’s share of Cuban medical discoveries. Mostly due to their efforts, the country has patents pending on some 150 new medicines and technologies that treat a range of diseases ��” from heart disease and different cancers to AIDS ��” and is marketing its products worldwide.

More:
http://havanajournal.com/culture/entry/cuban_biotechnology_working_on_diabetic_ulcers/

~~~~~
Cuban cancer drug undergoes rare U.S. trial
September 4, 2009 By John Dorschner

The drug nimotuzumab is designed to target cancer cells including those in rare and deadly types like glioma, the brain cancer that killed Sen. Ted Kennedy. A researcher at the University of Florida, where one trial is already in progress, calls the drug "exciting, interesting."

The hitch: Even if trials prove successful, nimotuzumab could not be sold in the United States because 20 percent of the company holding the license is owned by the Cuban government.

"We're in the business of developing drugs," said David G.P. Allan, chief of YM Biosciences, based in Canada. "We could care less about the political side."

YM Biosciences owns 80 percent of CIMYM, the company that has the rights to develop nimotuzumab in North America, Europe, Japan and other places. The other 20 percent is owned by the Center of Molecular Immunology, the biotech lab in Havana that developed the drug.

More:
http://www.physorg.com/news171277649.html

~~~~~
Last Updated: Friday, 21 November, 2003, 08:29 GMT
Cuba sells its medical expertise
By Tom Fawthrop
reporting from Havana, Cuba

Cuba's struggling economy has been boosted by the successful export of its medical technology abroad, and by health tourism within the country.

Cuba's position in the developing world has always been something of a paradox.

Its low material living standards and crisis-ridden economy leads to a low per capita income, but President Fidel Castro's Caribbean blend of socialism has developed a public health system that places Cuba in another league altogether on human development indexes.
Basic health indicators are comparable to the achievements of welfare systems in western Europe.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3284995.stm

ETC., ETC., ETC.

[Cool Logic]

38. You should ask the people of Brazil how well that hepatitis B vaccine works.

And then ask some medical professionals about that meningitis vaccine...

http://todaysvitalhealth.com/experts-predict-meningitis-b-vaccine/

We cannot for a second abandon propaganda. ~ Fidel Castro

It would appear that you have learned that lesson well.

[Judi Lynn]

40. Cuba's not mentioned in your link. Do you have a link for your reference to Brazil

and Cuba's hepatitis B vaccine?

Where are your sources, and your information?

[EFerrari]

8. If he's going back for chemo, I wonder if that means

there was more that was inoperable or, is it a precaution.

My cousin had surgery for colon cancer now five years ago, and she had several courses of chemo before and after.

/oops

[rabs]

10. Chavez said today that his return to Cuba

was to follow the recommended treatment Cuban doctors prescribed before he returned to Caracas for the Bicentennial. It sounds more like a precautionary measure.

[naaman fletcher]

12. I'm not sure that is what it means

But I hope you are being accurate is it is now illegal in venezuela to spread false information, and you have very vocally supported that law.

[bitchkitty]

21. Probably a precaution.

When I had breast cancer I had to have chemo and radiation after surgery even though margins were clean. I think it's pretty much standard except in those cancers that don't respond to chemo and/or radiation.

Best to your cousin!

[dipsydoodle]

15. Well hopefully the treatment will be successful

Rec'd

BBC link here :

The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Caracas says some people will be surprised by the president opting to go back to Cuba instead of staying at home for treatment.

But the strong bond he has with Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, who first noticed he was not looking well, and his ability to recover away from the public eye may make Cuba a more compelling place for treatment, she says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14171391

[Judi Lynn]

16. Oh, boy. Somewhere in the retelling of the tumor, it has grown as large as a basketball!

This account is from Agence France-Presse:

Chavez to get cancer treatment in Brazil: state media
Friday, 15 July 2011 19:20

BRASILIA: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will undergo new treatment for cancer in Brazil after his June operation in Cuba, Brazil's official news agency reported Friday.
Chavez spoke with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to work out details of the treatment that will take place at a Sao Paulo hospital, reported Agencia Brasil, which did not indicate its sources.

Rousseff's office declined to comment on the report.

Chavez acknowledged Wednesday he may need chemotherapy for cancer, but he denied that a huge tumor "almost as big as a basketball" had spread to his colon or his stomach.

More:
http://www.brecorder.com/world/south-america/20277-chavez-to-get-cancer-treatment-in-brazil-state-media.html

[rabs]

23. Reuters strikes again.

Citing an unsourced report in the Agencia Brasil.

There has to be red faces at the Reuters headquarters in London today.

Basketball, eh? Basketball are like, kinda big !

[joshcryer]

27. Huh? Chavez is the source.

Wow, this is so silly.

[boppers]

17. What's wrong with treatment in his country?

I thought he was making sure Venezuela had decent medical care?

[dipsydoodle]

18. Cuba facilities are amongst the world's finest.

after a long period time.

Venezuala's are not necessarily so at present. No country can become that specialised overnight.

[joshcryer]

19. Huh? They've spent billions on Venezeula's health infrastructure.

Venezuela has a http://www.who.int/countries/en/cooperation_strategy_ven_en.pdf">malignant neoplasms (PDF) mortality rate of 62.8 per 100,000. Whereas Cuba is http://www.paho.org/english/sha/prflcub.htm">141 per 100,000.

Let's be honest, it's to stay out of the limelight for the treatment. I won't even go the cynical route that Castro/Raul have their own interests. He doesn't want a media swarm hanging over his treatment. In Venezuela whatever hospital he'd be in would be on Chavez-watch, even if the supporters camp out. In Brazil it'd be even worse (the international media would go loopy over it).

[CreekDog]

20. it's pretty hard to raise the standard of living in a country

Chavez has raised standards of living in his country.

Has Obama raised our standards of living in ours?

[hack89]

22. He has also triggered a massive crime wave

as well as wrecking the economy. Obama should not use him as a role model.

[Unvanguard]

28. How did Chavez "trigger" a crime wave? n/t

[EFerrari]

29. Apparently reserving the nation's resources for the people is a crime

to some people.

lol

[joshcryer]

31. By enabling massive corruption through the unfettered redistribution of windfall money?

Compare to Brazil and Chile whose crime rates have fallen proportion to their poverty rates.

In Venezuela it's been the exact opposite (more deadly than Iraq, twice as many kinappings than Colombia).

But really this shit is completely off the topic of this thread and I wouldn't care if the mods deleted the entire subthread. It's already been established that Venezuela has better facilities than Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

32. No stretch is too far, no charge too low, or too odd, it seems. n/t

[joshcryer]

33. Nah, best to just ignore facts when they're presented.

But I don't see how any of this is relevant to this thread.

[hack89]

35. Who does bear responsibility when society starts to fray

and violent crime skyrockets? What are the causes of violent crime? Desperate poverty, inequality and hopelessness come to mind - I am sure you can think of others.

[EFerrari]

41. Economic inequality in Venezuela has been going down

throughout Chavaz's tenure.

http://justf.org/blog/2010/06/08/income-inequality-latin-america-today

While it has been going steadily up in the United States

http://www.newsbatch.com/econ.htm

[hack89]

42. Yet our violent crime rates are at historic lows

while Venezuela is one of most violent countries in the Americas. Sound like Venezuela has other issues besides economic equality.

[EFerrari]

44. Yes, it does. It neighbors Colombia which is an exporter of violence.

It has a rabid, violent right wing which the government has been too soft on. And of course. it's had a corrupt national police force which is undergoing reform now.

But that same rabid right wing has used "crime" as a mantra so well, that the national perception of crime is actually many times worse than the actual crime rate. The wing nuts have used "crime" and "the economy" to attack Chavez even as they have done their best to inflate both, just as the Republicans here are willing to create a crisis to attack Obama with.

[Judi Lynn]

46. True! How can people not recognize it instantly? Blinders. n/t

[hack89]

47. So Colombian death squads have made Caracas the most violent city in the Americas

and Chavez is powerless to stop them? Isn't that an incredible indictment of Chavez - he can't even protect his people from foreign violence? Makes you wonder who is really in charge.

On Edit: This may also explain that damning UN report of drug smuggling in Venezuela - if Chavez can't control his country then I guess the cartels may be running parts of the country.

[trud]

50. cartels

like Mexico all due to the stupid US "war on drugs" instead of legalizing.

[hack89]

34. self delete nt

[trud]

49. boppers

Fidel is, of course, in Cuba. Fidel is like Dad. If he were in my corner and I were Chavez, I'd be there too. It was Fidel who told him of the cancer diagnosis originally.

[totodeinhere]

24. I'm sorry to be so pessimistic, but IMO it doesn't look good for him.

I hope I am wrong. Even though I have disagreed with him sometimes I would not wish this on anybody, let alone a champion of the average citizen as he is.

[joshcryer]

25. I think as a person he's alright.

And I think politically the worst thing would be for him to die before elections come.

[totodeinhere]

39. One thing you can say about Chavez, and this is one reason why I reject the notion that he is a

dictator. This has never been about him. He has not set up a personality cult centered around himself. He is striving to transform society in a way that average people can get a break. I think there is a decent chance this his democratic revolution will live on after him. And no I am not trying to kill him off. I hope he recovers.

[UTUSN]

51. Bwah-ha-ha-HAH!1 Is this "La hora de la RISA"?!1

Actually, martyrdom will be a better kettle than dictatorship for him: No more pesky modifications of Constitution and elections to deal with!1 Not to mention that no-speaking-ill-of-the-dead thing. And LLOYD-WEBBER can easily come up with a "Don't cry for me, Venezuela," (whatever *that* means).

"...has not set up a personality cult..." and "his democratic revolution..." ---- SNARF!1

What was it one of his brothers said a few weeks ago, that Hugonauts ought not to depend so much on ELECTIONS, should be prepared to use FORCE. By the bye, who knew he had brothers?!1 And today there was a news picture of Daddy Hugo with two DAUGHTERS!1 Wonder where THEY were when Naomi CAMPBELL spent a month gamboling around the old electoral palace?!1

Hoo-KAY!1 Here we go: ( :hide: )

[JCMach1]

43. Should we point out Cuba is ripe for Health Tourism from America

Open the doors and Cuba's economy will boom.

[Judi Lynn]

45. Damned right. The problem is, the US gov't doesn't WANT their economy healthy. n/t

[boppers]

48. Cuba still practices "patient based" medicine.

In the US, we call them "witch doctors".

Patient happiness is great in Cuba. Until they're dead, in which case, they don't report.