Hugo Tweets

Via the BBC:  Venezuela’s Chavez tweets post-surgery: ‘I’ll live!’

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sent out messages from Cuba saying he is recovering well from an operation for a suspected recurrence of cancer.

Mr Chavez used the Twitter social network to tell officials and supporters he would "live and win" after surgery in Cuba on Monday to remove a lesion from his pelvic region.

There has been no official word on whether the lesion was cancerous.

Really, who could make up the story of the authoritarian tweeter who has to go to another country to get not one, but two serious surgeries, because he fears the political ramifications of having the surgery in his own country (lack of secrecy, etc.)?

In this tale of wonder the tweeter would also have a talk show and would get upset over photos that make him look like Mickey Mouse.

No, really.

FILED UNDER: Latin America, World Politics, , , , , , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Brummagem Joe says:

    A sledgehammer to crack a nut? Chavez is one of those minor Caudillos (Castro is the prime example) whose demonisation by the US has merely served to elevate their apparent importance way beyond their real importance. Instead of embargoing Cuba if we’d deluged them with US consumer goods Castro would have been out of power 40 years ago.