Now that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has publicly conceded that he has cancer — after his regime had accused independent media of being “agents of imperialism” for speculating that his prolonged stay in Cuba was due to a serious illness — here are three scenarios of what may happen in Venezuela. All of them point to turbulent times ahead.
Scenario 1: Chávez beats the odds. The Venezuelan president, who has been hospitalized in Havana since June 10, returns to his country to continue his cancer treatment at home and recovers in time to run for the December 2012 elections. [Ed note: This was written before Chávez returned to Caracas.]
Despite his sagging popularity, which according to a recent Keller and Associates poll has dropped to 41 per cent, while 53 per cent of