The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Hugo Chávez: not dead

Reports of the Venezuelan President's death have been exaggerated.

By George Eaton Published 27 June 2011 13:13

Hugo Chávez, a Mark Twain fan, might feel like quoting Twain's famous quip that "rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated" this morning. Reports of Chávez's demise began on Twitter last night after a group calling itself WikiLeaks Argentina (not associated with Julian Assange's outfit) tweeted: "Argentinean Embassy Cable: Confirmed - ALERT!! Hugo Chavez died of heart attack today in Cuba. 06/25/11 08:43AM 0438VZ/11". But the claim was not verified by any news organisation and appeared to be a hoax.

Chávez has been governing Venezuela from a hospital bed in Cuba since 10 June when he had emergency surgery on a pelvic abscess. He was rushed to hospital after suffering abdominal pain while in a meeting with Fidel Castro. The Venezuelan government has insisted that he is "recovering well" and has denied rumours that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Chávez telephoned the state-run television channel, Telesur, on June 12 and said medical tests showed no sign of any "malignant" illness. His Twitter account, which had laid dormant for 19 days, was updated on Friday. Chávez tweeted: "I'm here with you during the hard battles every day! Until victory always! We are winning! And we shall win!"

But his absence has highlighted what has been clear for some time: there is no obvious successor to the man who has led Venezuela for 12 years. The left, ostensibly committed to collective agency, has allowed itself to become dependent on another caudillo.

Perhaps surprisingly, the fate of the self-styled "21st centry socialist" has attracted little comment, even in the liberal press (the Guardian, for instance, did not report on Chávez's hospitalisation). But Chávez's unsavoury friendships with dictators and autocrats, including Robert Mugabe, Colonel Gaddafi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Alexander Lukashenko, mean that he is no longer viewed so favourably by the British left. For Venezuela, the question remains whether Chávezism is possible without Chávez.

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Tags: Hugo Chávez Venezuela

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12 comments

Mon, 2011-06-27 19:11 — Sam (not verified)

Why should a newspaper that claims to be liberal comment on a socialist? Liberalism is the complete opposite of socialism.

In any case Chavez has been causing much destruction in Venezuala. The economy is tanking and crime is out of control and corruption is rampant.

Hopefully when Chavez goes Venezuela can go in the direct of countries like Brazil and Chile and greatly improve the conditions of it's people.

Mon, 2011-07-04 12:37 — AfricanSnowman

The USA has been known to poison its opponents has it not??

I've said this before - "Good Luck Chavez!!! With the enemies you have you are going to need plenty of it"

Mon, 2011-06-27 16:01 — Willp

George Eaton writes, "he is no longer viewed so favourably by the British left."
Any evidence for this? Didn't see any.

Tue, 2011-06-28 04:02 — bill grove (not verified)

Cuban Medical service is better than the Venezuelan, or there is no good Venezuelan doctors, I wonder, why this guy gets Cuban medical treatment?

Tue, 2011-06-28 10:40 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

The left lead by impractical people like Chomsky praised Venezuelan workers co-operatives. This was their answer to 'exploitative capitalism'. It's been tried before and failed for various reasons, the main being that everyone wants to be the boss and nobody wants to do the dirty work. That's the problem with lefty academics, they've never actually worked in factories as ordinary workers.

Tue, 2011-06-28 14:51 — Luke Nicholas (not verified)

In response to Bill Grove, it is because he fell ill in Cuba during a visit there, and Cuba has the highest health standards in the region in any case.

Mon, 2011-06-27 14:04 — writeoff (not verified)

Geo. caudillo - military / authoritarian leader / dictator - not reflective of a devolving democracy, is this what you meant? If you want to say strong man, use English. You're borrowing words from a mendacious opposition. Hence some of the headlines about a 'power vacuum', just stirring, looking to cause chaos. I agree HC has chosen some friends badly, but then the 'enemy of my enemy' reasoning is not unique - we've chummed up to Gaddafi, Saddam, any tinpot arab dictatorship that promises oil in fact. I do agree however that the Chavez government needs to spread the power at the top and not rely on HC alone, or risk fragmenting again in the future.

Mon, 2011-06-27 14:05 — Mr Danger

It is true that the mainstream British left has gone quiet on Chavez. But go a little further left than that and he is still pretty popular.

I certainly hope he lives to see the inevitable result of his policies.

Tue, 2011-06-28 23:08 — Edward (not verified)

Venezuela is falling apart at the seams and there are politians that are in far better touch with the needs of the people that could do a better job for Venezuela.

Wed, 2011-06-29 04:04 — Shoot (not verified)

I agree with writeoff. you shouldn't use words you don't know. chavez is NOT a caudillo. just as you don't seem to understand venezuela's language too well, you also don't seem to understand the situation in south america and what chavez represents for it.

Mon, 2011-06-27 16:40 — Bill Major (not verified)

"No longer viewed so favourably" By whom? No longer flavour of the month amongst journalists more likely. Oops he has made contacts with the people who told the USA/UK to piss off instead of embracing the USA which funded coup attempts to get rid of him. The left is expected to follow the right wing press with its labelling of "baddies of the month" -Mugabe,Ghaddafi,Castro,Ahmadinejad, and sadly it is too often spineless enough to do just what the media mob want.

Mon, 2011-06-27 18:16 — stevem1

Unsavoury friends. His friends are saints comparee with the friends of Blair and Bush and all sorts of previous US officials. What about all those South and Central American dictators?