Venezuela tells foes to "stop dreaming" of Chavez's death

CARACAS (Reuters) - Senior allies of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez have rubbished reports he is sicker than the government has admitted, telling his enemies to "stop dreaming" of his death.

The normally verbose leader has not been seen in public since a June 10 operation in Cuba to remove a pelvic swelling. His long absence has prompted widespread speculation he may be seriously ill, possibly being treated for prostate cancer.

His government insists Chavez is fine but says he won't return to Venezuela until he is ready. And it has accused his opponents of "rubbing their hands together" in glee.

"President Chavez is recovering well from his surgery. His enemies should stop dreaming and his friends should stop worrying," Vice Foreign Minister Temir Porras said on the social networking site Twitter late on Saturday.

"The only thing that has metastasized is the cancer of the Miami Herald and the rest of the right-wing press."

Porras was referring to a report in the Nueva Herald, the Miami Herald's Spanish-language sister paper, on Saturday that cited unnamed U.S. intelligence officials as saying Chavez was in "critical condition" at hospital in Havana.

A senior U.S. official cast doubt on that report, telling Reuters that Washington was hearing lots of speculation about Chavez's health but had no firm intelligence.

"The fact is, we just don't know," the official said.

The absence of the 56-year-old Chavez, a former soldier who has nationalized much of the economy, has underlined his total dominance of Venezuelan politics, and the lack of an obvious successor after his 12 years in power.

Vice President Elias Jaua said Chavez would return soon.

"The national and international right-wing are going crazy, rubbing their hands together ... even talking about the death of the president," he said in a speech, adding that Chavez's rivals were exposing themselves as anti-democratic fascists.

"They know they cannot win elections against our comandante," Jaua said.

Chavez sent several Twitter messages on Friday from his @chavezcandanga account, which is followed by more than 1.6 million people, but said nothing about his health.

He continued tweeting on Saturday, expressing pride in a big new housing project and saying his daughter Rosines and grandchildren had flown to Cuba to visit him. "Ah, what happiness to receive this bath of love! God blesses me!" he wrote.

(Editing by Kieran Murray)

WhatsAppFacebookTwitterLinkedinBeloudBluesky