VENEZUELA: Chávez home to die, speculates opposition
by the El Reportero’s wire services
Hugo ChávezAccording to Latin News, nothing more has been heard from President Hugo Chávez since his surprise return to Venezuela early on Feb. 18, fuelling speculation that plans are afoot for him to swear in privately before the supreme court and then step aside, triggering snap elections in which Vice-President Nicolás Maduro would bid to replace him. Senior ministers continue to insist that the president remains in full control of his faculties and continues to run the country, now from a hospital bed in Caracas, rather than Havana, Cuba.
Chávez’s return after two long months in Cuba in almost total silence (because he literally could not talk, it has now transpired), will help restore some stability, even in the absence of any proper details of his medical condition.
The photos released of the president prior to his return evidenced that he is not at all a well man. Officials from the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) were clear that the president’s immediate priorities remained medical, not political. In response to opposition calls for a resolution to what it says is the extra constitutional state of affairs in the country since Chávez’s failure (on Jan. 10) to swear in for the new term to which he was elected in October 2012, the state governor of Anzoátegui, Aristóbulo Istúriz, who sits on the PSUV leadership, said that Chávez 6would swear in “when he is well and healthy”, noting that the PSUV-controlled national assembly had given the president an indefinite period to get better. In a similar vein, Rodrigo Cabezas, a Venezuelan delegate to the Andean Parliament and also on the PSUV leadership, on 19 February stated, “The president has returned to continue his medical treatment, he has a time that is not political. His time now is not political”.
‘Sources’ from the supreme court (TSJ) quoted by the opposition daily El Universal on Feb. 19 made clear that “there has been no change in the exceptional circumstances that motivated the constitutional chamber’s Jan. 9 ruling, thanks to which the head of state and his ministers remain in their functions, despite the fact that the former could not meet the requirement to take office on Jan. 10”.
Nicaragua: More social investments with international support
(Prensa Latina) Nicaragua will carry out new aqueduct and sewer system works in 19 main cities with collaboration from Spain, the European Union and regional financial bodies, the government confirmed today.
Resources from Fondo de Agua (Spain), the EU and the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCEI) and the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) will back the projects, reported Rosario Murillo, a member of the presidential Cabinet.
The works will go from investment studies to construction work to install and extend water supply and sewer service, said Murillo.
According to Director of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID), Juan Lopez-Doriga, this is the most ambitious project ever carried out by AECID with a Latin American government.
El Salvador sets up special anti-gang unit
(Prensa Latina) The presidents of the Central American Integration System (SICA) are holding a summit today, in this capital, with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to promote relations and collaboration in Middle America.
Prior to the beginning of his first governmental visit to Costa Rica and Central America, Peña Nieto announced that Mexico would participate in the Infrastructure Fund for Middle America and the Caribbean Countries.
