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UPDATE 4:55 PM EST: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said just now on Venezuelan television. Chavez died Tuesday at 4:25 p.m.
Maduro teared up as he announced the news: "We must unite now more than ever. Our people can count on having a government of men and women committed to protecting them," Maduro said.
Earlier...
As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez clings to life, Vice President Nicolas Maduro Tuesday accused 'domestic and foreign enemies' of Venezuela of poisoning Chavez and he announced that Venezuela is expelling a U.S. Embassy military attache for organizing military support for a plot against the government.
Maduro said US Air Force attache David Delmonaco has been spying on the Venezuelan military, meeting with right-wing military officers and planning to destabilize the country. Delmonaco has been given 24 hours to leave the country.
Maduro also said, "This official has been given the task of looking for active military members in Venezuela in order to propose destabilization projects to the Armed Forces... We want to denounce that we have certain clues of elements that make up this poisonous picture, which seek to disrupt the social life of our country and give it a beating. The enemies of the country, who aim to destroy democracy, have decided to go ahead with plans to destabilize Venezuela and damage the crux of a democracy...they have intensified the attacks against the economy and against goods and services."
Maduro said Chavez was suffering "most difficult hours" since operation and that his doctors are with him while the nation is praying.
Maduro said the cancer afflicting Hugo Chavez was an "attack" by enemies among a barrage of conspiracies against Chavez throughout his 14-year presidency.
CNN is reporting:
[...] Some day, he told the press in a lengthy statement, there will be "scientific proof" that Chavez, fighting a battle with cancer, was poisoned. He also called Venezuela's political right-wing an "oligarchy" and an "enemy of the nation." Maduro urged supporters to close ranks and exercise "unity and discipline."
In December 2011, Chavez suggested that the U.S. may be behind a "very strange" series of cancers among leaders aligned with him in South America.
In 2011 Bloomberg news reported:
Chavez, speaking a day after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, said the Central Intelligence Agency was behind chemical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s and that it's possible that in years to come a plot will be uncovered that shows the U.S. spread cancer as a political weapon against its critics.
"It's very difficult to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some of us in Latin America," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech to the military. "Would it be so strange that they've invented technology to spread cancer and we won't know about it for 50 years?"
* * *
# # #
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |

UPDATE 4:55 PM EST: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said just now on Venezuelan television. Chavez died Tuesday at 4:25 p.m.
Maduro teared up as he announced the news: "We must unite now more than ever. Our people can count on having a government of men and women committed to protecting them," Maduro said.
Earlier...
As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez clings to life, Vice President Nicolas Maduro Tuesday accused 'domestic and foreign enemies' of Venezuela of poisoning Chavez and he announced that Venezuela is expelling a U.S. Embassy military attache for organizing military support for a plot against the government.
Maduro said US Air Force attache David Delmonaco has been spying on the Venezuelan military, meeting with right-wing military officers and planning to destabilize the country. Delmonaco has been given 24 hours to leave the country.
Maduro also said, "This official has been given the task of looking for active military members in Venezuela in order to propose destabilization projects to the Armed Forces... We want to denounce that we have certain clues of elements that make up this poisonous picture, which seek to disrupt the social life of our country and give it a beating. The enemies of the country, who aim to destroy democracy, have decided to go ahead with plans to destabilize Venezuela and damage the crux of a democracy...they have intensified the attacks against the economy and against goods and services."
Maduro said Chavez was suffering "most difficult hours" since operation and that his doctors are with him while the nation is praying.
Maduro said the cancer afflicting Hugo Chavez was an "attack" by enemies among a barrage of conspiracies against Chavez throughout his 14-year presidency.
CNN is reporting:
[...] Some day, he told the press in a lengthy statement, there will be "scientific proof" that Chavez, fighting a battle with cancer, was poisoned. He also called Venezuela's political right-wing an "oligarchy" and an "enemy of the nation." Maduro urged supporters to close ranks and exercise "unity and discipline."
In December 2011, Chavez suggested that the U.S. may be behind a "very strange" series of cancers among leaders aligned with him in South America.
In 2011 Bloomberg news reported:
Chavez, speaking a day after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, said the Central Intelligence Agency was behind chemical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s and that it's possible that in years to come a plot will be uncovered that shows the U.S. spread cancer as a political weapon against its critics.
"It's very difficult to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some of us in Latin America," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech to the military. "Would it be so strange that they've invented technology to spread cancer and we won't know about it for 50 years?"
* * *
# # #

UPDATE 4:55 PM EST: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said just now on Venezuelan television. Chavez died Tuesday at 4:25 p.m.
Maduro teared up as he announced the news: "We must unite now more than ever. Our people can count on having a government of men and women committed to protecting them," Maduro said.
Earlier...
As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez clings to life, Vice President Nicolas Maduro Tuesday accused 'domestic and foreign enemies' of Venezuela of poisoning Chavez and he announced that Venezuela is expelling a U.S. Embassy military attache for organizing military support for a plot against the government.
Maduro said US Air Force attache David Delmonaco has been spying on the Venezuelan military, meeting with right-wing military officers and planning to destabilize the country. Delmonaco has been given 24 hours to leave the country.
Maduro also said, "This official has been given the task of looking for active military members in Venezuela in order to propose destabilization projects to the Armed Forces... We want to denounce that we have certain clues of elements that make up this poisonous picture, which seek to disrupt the social life of our country and give it a beating. The enemies of the country, who aim to destroy democracy, have decided to go ahead with plans to destabilize Venezuela and damage the crux of a democracy...they have intensified the attacks against the economy and against goods and services."
Maduro said Chavez was suffering "most difficult hours" since operation and that his doctors are with him while the nation is praying.
Maduro said the cancer afflicting Hugo Chavez was an "attack" by enemies among a barrage of conspiracies against Chavez throughout his 14-year presidency.
CNN is reporting:
[...] Some day, he told the press in a lengthy statement, there will be "scientific proof" that Chavez, fighting a battle with cancer, was poisoned. He also called Venezuela's political right-wing an "oligarchy" and an "enemy of the nation." Maduro urged supporters to close ranks and exercise "unity and discipline."
In December 2011, Chavez suggested that the U.S. may be behind a "very strange" series of cancers among leaders aligned with him in South America.
In 2011 Bloomberg news reported:
Chavez, speaking a day after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, said the Central Intelligence Agency was behind chemical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s and that it's possible that in years to come a plot will be uncovered that shows the U.S. spread cancer as a political weapon against its critics.
"It's very difficult to explain, even with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some of us in Latin America," Chavez said in a nationally televised speech to the military. "Would it be so strange that they've invented technology to spread cancer and we won't know about it for 50 years?"
* * *
# # #