At Caracas’ military hospital, the only outward signs that President Hugo Chavez is a patient inside are the motorcades that come and go and the soldiers standing guard, some of them wearing red berets.
A poster with a large photo of Chavez smiling sits atop the Dr. Carlos Arvelo Military Hospital, but it has been there since long before the socialist leader was admitted upon his return from his latest cancer treatment in Cuba.
Some of the president’s supporters shout “Viva Chavez!” and “He’s back!” as they drive past the hospital, which this week has become the new center of attention in Chavez’s 21-month-long cancer struggle.
The government provided an update on Chavez’s condition Thursday night, saying that he remained at the hospital and that “the medical treatment for the fundamental illness continues without presenting significant adverse effects.”
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas read the statement on television, saying that a “respiratory insufficiency” that arose in the weeks after the surgery “persists and its tendency has not been favorable, thus it continues to be treated.”
The government has said Chavez is breathing through a tracheal tube.
“The patient remains in communication with his relatives, with the political team of his government and in close cooperation with his medical team,” Villegas said, adding that Chavez “keeps clinging to Christ, with a maximum will to live.”
The government hasn’t released a single photo of Chavez since his arrival in Caracas on Monday, and that has led some Venezuelans to question whether he’s actually in the hospital.
Others insist he is there, just out of sight while undergoing treatment.
wirestory
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