President, who has cancer in pelvic region, has not been seen in public for months, but 58% believe he will recover
Hugo Ch vez is still fighting for his life, said the country's vice-president on Thursday night, yet a recent poll says nearly three in five Venezuelans believe their president will return to power.
Nicolas Maduro, Ch vez's presumed successor, said on television that his boss "is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him".
The vice-president had characterised Ch vez's condition similarly on 20 December, saying the president "is fighting a great battle ... for his life, for his health".
Ch vez has not spoken nor been seen in public since before his fourth operation in Cuba on 11 December for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area.
The government says he has been breathing with the help of a tracheal tube after surviving a serious respiratory infection. It says Ch vez returned on 18 February and is at a military hospital in Caracas for continued treatment for "respiratory insufficiency".
Despite speculation by doctors not involved in Ch vez's treatment that it is most likely palliative, designed only to make him more comfortable in his remaining days, many Venezuelans apparently believe - or want to believe - he is on the mend.
"The president's prolonged absence and his critical situation have not been converted into massive pessimism about his return," respected pollster Luis Vicente L on tweeted on Thursday.
He said nearly 58% of Venezuelans believed Ch vez would recover while about 30% believed he would not return to power and 12.5% said they did not know what would happen. Meanwhile, 1% believed Ch vez was never sick.
L on, chief of the Datan lisis polling firm, told Associated Press that the 11 February poll of 1,198 people had an error margin of three percentage points.
He said he thought the poll reflected people's desire not to believe the worst about someone who is dear to them, just as people resisted accepting that a close relative might be dying.
L on also said he thought reports of government officials holding hours-long meetings with Ch vez had contributed to the belief of many Venezuelans that Ch vez would return.
"The government has sent permanent messages that President Ch vez will return, that he meets with the vice-president for five hours," Leon noted.
He said people did not necessarily believe that, however, as the poll found 44% think the government has not been transparent in discussing Ch vez's health.
In his televised remarks, Maduro called for Venezuelans to keep praying for Ch vez and remain loyal to the committed socialist who has been their president for more than 14 years.
"Do you know why Comandante Ch vez neglected his health and has been battling [cancer] for nearly two years?" he said. "Because he completely surrendered body and soul and forgot all his obligations to himself in order to give himself to the homeland."
Ch vez, 58, has acknowledged that he neglected his health in recent years, often staying up late and consuming cup after cup of coffee to remain alert.
The president has undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments since June 2011, when he first announced his cancer diagnosis. He has not specified the type of cancer nor the exact location in his pelvic region where his tumours have been removed.
On 15 February, the government released four photographs of Ch vez lying in a bed in Cuba with his two daughters by his side. They were the only images of him published since early December.
Re-elected in October, Ch vez was scheduled to have been sworn in on 10 January, but the supreme court said the swearing-in could be delayed.
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