• Submitted by: manso
• International
• 06 / 29 / 2011

---

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's surgery and secretive stay in Cuba has set off speculation the socialist leader's health may be worse than the government is acknowledging.

Versions range from Chavez having cancer to him deliberately stoking the mystery to prepare a triumphant return that would boost him on the road to a 2012 re-election bid.

Here are some possible scenarios:

IF CHAVEZ IS SERIOUSLY ILL...

-Ever since Chavez, 56, underwent surgery in Havana on June 10 there have been whispers he may have prostate cancer. There has been nothing of substance to prove that, though well-known Venezuelan journalist Nelson Bocaranda gave them some credence this week in detailed reports based on unnamed medical sources. U.S.-based think-tank Stratfor also quoted a source linked to Chavez's doctors saying a tumor in his prostate required surgery in May and then spread to his pelvis, leading to a second operation in Cuba this month.

-Were Chavez to be incapacitated or die, his Vice President Elias Jaua should take over for the rest of the six-year period under Article 233 of the constitution. A presidential election is due by the end of 2012, with the winner to start a new mandate in January of 2013.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/