SALON

Tuesday, Jan 15, 2013 5:30 PM UTC

Venezuelan VP: Chavez asked questions during visit

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Venezuelan VP: Chavez asked questions during visitIn this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro, right, speaks with opposition leader, Miranda state Gov. Henrique Capriles, center, and Lara state Gov. Henry Falcon during a meeting with state governors in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. Maduro said in a televised meeting with state governors that President Hugo Chavez has been making progress in his treatment for a severe respiratory infection and asked questions of his aides during a visit in Cuba. (AP Photo/Miraflores Press Office)(Credit: AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s vice president said Tuesday that President Hugo Chavez has been making progress in his treatment for a severe respiratory infection and asked questions of his aides during a recent visit to Cuba, where the president is recovering.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on television that he and other officials including Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez met with Chavez on Monday. Maduro said they provided him with an update on “the government in a new stage” and other matters.

“He asked our friend Rafael Ramirez about (certain) aspects” of the government, Maduro said in a televised meeting with state governors, adding that Chavez had questioned other officials present.

“Our commander is climbing the hill, he’s advancing, and that fills us with great happiness,” he said.

Maduro expressed gratitude to Chavez’s medical team but didn’t give details, only saying that Chavez “is in battle.”

The 58-year-old president, who was re-elected in October, has not made any public comments since his latest cancer surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11. He has been fighting an unspecified type of pelvic cancer, and his long silence has fed speculation about why he has apparently been unable to address the country by phone on television, as he has during past treatments in Cuba. Government officials have said Chavez is being treated for “respiratory deficiency.”

The government has indefinitely postponed Chavez’s inauguration despite complaints by the opposition that the move is unconstitutional.

Pro-Chavez lawmaker and congressional Vice President Dario Vivas told Venezuelan radio station Union Radio that Maduro would represent the government at the annual state-of-the-nation speech Tuesday afternoon before the National Assembly.

Opposition leaders, however, said that under the constitution the president is responsible for giving the annual address. Last January, even as he was between cancer treatments, Chavez delivered the address, speaking for about nine hours before lawmakers.

Maduro spoke on Tuesday morning at a gathering of state governors in Caracas after returning from Cuba along with Ramirez, Attorney General Cilia Flores and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello.

The governors who attended included Chavez’s elder brother, Adan, other allied politicians and top opposition leader Henrique Capriles and two other opposition governors.

More By Ian James And Vivian Sequera.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
121 points122 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
111 points112 points | 10 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
67 points68 points | 15 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
64 points65 points | 72 comments
vote
Journalists file suit against Manning trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
59 points60 points | 3 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations