Viva Hugo Chavez Frias! Long Live the Bolivarian Revolution! We are republishing this piece by Justina written in December 2012 in memorial to Hugo Chavez and in solidarity with the Venezuelan people and revolution!Here in Nicaragua, where this writer is now living, the news on December 8, 2012 that Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez Frias was to undergo yet another operation to fight the cancer which has plagued him since 2011 was reported in one of the country's two major newspapers, âEl Nuevo Diarioâ, under massive and thick black headlines, that in announcing his need for a 4th cancer operation, President Chavez had, for the first time, named his preferred successor to the presidency should he be unable to serve. Chavez asked the country to support his recently appointed vice president, Nicholas Maduro, should a new election be necessary.
Nicaragua, and much of the rest of Central and South America were stunned by the notion that President Chavez might be unable to serve out the new 6 year term to which he was re-elected on October 7, 2012. He conducted a physically vigorous campaign against the much younger opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski, and had bested Capriles 55 + to 44 % with a more than 80% voter turnout.
The majority of Venezuelans were devastated by the news, and rushed into the streets do demonstrate their support and into the churches to pray for his recovery. Thousands of people, including many heads of states, in other Latin American countries did the same.
Most of the tattered opposition, including Capriles, had the grace to refrain from showing their glee at Chavez's possible demise, some did not. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church which had long and viciously opposed Chavez, piously pointed out to their laity that Chavez was only a frail human being, like any other man. They likely highly resented that they had to open their churches and allow masses to be conducted for the heath of this man who had frequently criticized the hierarchy for its support of the wealthy oppositionists, while at the same time calling on Catholic saints for aid during his illness. Chavez had consistently identified himself as a Christian socialist.