Diosdado Cabello and King Raul exchange pleasantries at Havana airport (Alternative caption: "oye, Diosdado, carajo, tremendo bulto, ahi, abajo: tienes una pistola en el bolsillo, o es que te excita estar aqui en mi reino?"

As Chavez shrinks, Cuban influence in Caracastan looms larger

According to Univision and Spain's ABC, Hugo Chavez is now in a "severe" condition.  New details leaked yesterday include the following:

* In the five weeks following his latest surgery, Chavez has lost around 20 kilos (44 pounds), and looks so emaciated that if photos were to be released, panic would ensue among his followers.

* During surgery, he suffered a heart attack.

* In addition to removing part of his intestines, surgeons removed his prostate.

* Contrary to a recent AP report, he is no longer at the elite CIMEQ hospital, but at an underground bunker hospital beneath the Plaza of the Revolution -- a facility built for Fidel.  (If this is true, then the AP fluff piece featured here yesterday  must have been a clumsy smokescreen spun by the Ministry of Truth and obediently reproduced by AP). Full story HERE. (Spanish)

In the meantime, Venezuela's Minister of Information, Ernesto Villegas, continues to insist that Chavez is struggling valiantly against respiratory problems and nowhere near death.  He also reiterated that nothing at all is being hidden from the people of Venezuela, and that all rumors of the gravity of Chavez's condition are being spread by those in the opposition who would like for him to die.  Story HERE.  (Spanish)

And while Villegas and the Chavistas promote the notion that Chavez is pulling out of his deadly tailspin, the opposition in Venenozuela tries to point out the obvious fact that their nation has lost its sovereignty and is being run from Havana.  Story HERE. (Spanish)

And since there seems to be only one newspaper in the world that keeps reporting dire news about Chavez's condition -- ABC --  the chavistas in Caracastan found it necessary to denounce that newspaper as a fascist relic from the Franco era, and to accuse it of "malice."   Acting president Nicolas "Saddamito" Maduro also lambasted all foreign newspapers that picked up the ABC reports and villainously translated them into many languages for a wide world audience.  Story HERE, of course, in Spanish, and at ABC.