Venezuelan President Hugo Ch?vez may have helped his party avoid in-fighting by naming his vice president to be his chosen successor.?
People pray during a demonstration in support of Venezuela's President Hugo Ch?vez at the Simon Bolivar square in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday. Ch?vez was heading back to Cuba on Sunday for more surgery.
Fernando Llano/AP
EnlargeThousands of Venezuelans poured into central Caracas Sunday in solidarity?as their president, Hugo Ch?vez, prepared for his journey to Cuba for surgery.
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The passions that led the president's followers to take streets after his election day victory just weeks before took a different form after Saturday's announcement that the president's cancer had returned.?Despite the presence of marching bands and attempts to revive popular campaign chants, many at the rally remained subdued ahead of his flight to Havana today.
"We?re here in a demonstration of spirit and faith to support our president who is fighting this terrible disease,? says William Hernandez, a library administrator.?
The firebrand leader has been shuttling back and forth between Havana and Caracas to receive cancer treatments since last June.?In a signal that the situation has grown more serious,?Ch?vez named his successor Saturday: Vice President?Nicol?s Maduro. The nod to his vice president,?a former trade unionist and minister of foreign of affairs, reverberated across both sides of the political divide, as many Venezuelans now believe the end may be near for their leader.
"Of course we support [Maduro], he's a 'young, well-prepared leader,'" says Ricardo G?mez, a chemical engineer, echoing the president's endorsement at the rally.?
In the near term, the endorsement has little practical effect: Venezuela's constitution already establishes that the vice president should take over?if the president is unable to finish his term. Ch?vez, who has been in power 14 years, is scheduled to begin a new six-year term on January 10. Under Venezuelan law, if the president is unable to serve, or dies within the first four years of the term, a special election is convened within 30 days to determine a new president.
The?Ch?vez announcement is important because "in the event the president can't serve, the reigning party has their candidate," says Ricardo Sanchez, an opposition member of the National Assembly.?He adds that he expects Mr. Maduro would follow the same?political direction as?Ch?vez.
But even with the endorsement, it remains to be seen if Maduro could muster as much political respect as Ch?vez. Many fear that without Ch?vez at the helm his party will splinter. "Of course Nicholas Maduro doesn't have the same leadership as Ch?vez," says Vladimir Villegas, a former diplomat who served under Maduro. "However, he has Ch?vez's approval?? which counts for [something] in terms of [limiting] party infighting."
Ch?vez was reelected by the slimmest margin (11 percent) of his political career in the October presidential race against Henrique Capriles Radonski.
Mr. Villegas says the passing of the campaign torch to soft-spoken Maduro ??over Ch?vez hard lined-military allies or strident leftists???as the president's most viable chance at "convincing and inspiring voters" to return to the polls.
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