Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, is ill and fighting for life -- but a recent poll indicated nearly three in five Venezuelans believe he will recover and return to power.
Nicolas Maduro, who Chavez appointed as successor, said on television that Chavez "is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him," the Associated Press reported.
The president has not spoken, nor has he been seen, since before his fourth operation in Cuba on Dec. 11 for an unspecified cancer in his pelvic area, AP reported.
The government says he has been breathing, aided by a tracheal tube, following a serious respiratory infection. Chavez, according to the government, returned on Feb. 18 and is at a military hospital in Caracas to receive more treatment for "respiratory insufficiency."
Doctors not involved in Chavez treatment have speculated that the president's current medical care is only palliative, designed to make him as comfortable as possible in his last days, but many Venezuelans believe - or want to believe, at least - that their leader will make it through his illness, AP reported.
"The president's prolonged absence and his critical situation have not been converted into massive pessimism about his return," respected pollster Luis Vicente Leon tweeted Thursday, according to AP.
Leon said nearly 58 percent of Venezuelans believe Chavez will recover, while about 30 percent believe he will not return to power and 12.5 percent say they don't know what will happen, according to the Associated Press. One percent, meanwhile, believe Chavez was never sick. Leon, chief of the Datanalisis polling firm, told The Associated Press that the Feb. 11 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 who is dear to them, just as people don't want to accept a close relative's death.
Leon also said he thought reports of government officials holding hours-long meetings with Chavez led many Venezuelans to believe that their president will prevail.
"The government has sent permanent messages that President Chavez will return, that he meets with the vice president for five hours," Leon told the Associated Press.
He said not everyone buys that, though, because the poll found 44 percent of people think the government has not been transparent in discussing the president's health. In his televised remarks, Maduro told Venezuelans to keep praying for Chavez and remain loyal to him.
"Do you know why Comandante Chavez neglected his health and has been battling (cancer) for nearly two years?" he said, according to the Associated Press. "Because he completely surrendered body and soul and forgot all his obligations to himself in order to give himself to the homeland."
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