Analyst: Hugo Chavez grooming a successor

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- An ex-army officer is likely being groomed to succeed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who said he will need surgery for a new pelvic lesion, an analyst said.

"The political machinations have begun in the hope of creating a strong successor to ensure the ruling Socialist Party remains in control amid growing opposition ahead of an October presidential election," Maria Elena Ferrer, a Venezuelan national and political author who runs the Humanamente consulting firm in New York, told United Press International.

Chavez has said he will run for re-election Oct. 7, seeking to extend his more than 13 years in power with a new six-year term.

He is to face 39-year-old Henrique Capriles, a state governor who won a Feb. 12 primary by the opposition Coalition for Democratic Unity that drew more than 3 million voters.

Officials had predicted a fraction of that number would turn out, Ferrer told UPI.

Jesse Chacon. former interior and justice minister and a close Chavez ally, belittled the primary in advance, saying if 2.5 million voters showed up, they would defeat Chavez in October, Ferrer said.

Chavez has positioned Diosdado Cabello, a former army lieutenant and vice president involved in Chavez's February 1992 coup attempt, for top leadership after naming him president of the unicameral National Assembly last month, Ferrer told UPI.

Until recently Chavez had supported Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, one of his staunchest allies, but when the opposition began showing strength, Chavez demoted Maduro for the more hard-nosed Cabello, she said.

Cabello's brother runs Venezuela's tax-collecting revenue service and his sister is a top Venezuelan envoy to the United Nations.

Chavez named Maduro, foreign minister since 2006, the party's candidate for governor of Venezuela's northern Carabobo state.

"It's ironic because Maduro, despite his lack of leadership qualities, was the only person Chavez truly trusted in his Cabinet," said Ferrer, who had indirect dealings with Maduro in the late 1990s when he was a Caracas union leader.

"He is also the only person in the government who really knows Chavez's medical condition," she said. "He even knows more than Chavez's family."

Chavez, 57, told state-owned Venezolana de Television Tuesday he had "a small lesion of about 2 centimeters [almost 1 inch] in diameter, very clearly visible, ... that obligates us to do another surgical intervention."

He said the surgery would take place "in the coming days," but was not more specific about when or where.

Chavez said he learned of the lesion after traveling to Cuba Saturday for medical tests -- a secret trip the government initially vehemently denied.

Chavez rejected speculation a "baseball-size" cancerous tumor in his pelvis, removed in Cuba last June, had spread.

"I completely deny what's going around that I have metastasis in the liver or I don't know where, that the cancer has spread all over my body and that I'm already dying," he told state TV.

He declared himself cancer-free after chemotherapy, while not specifying the cancer's nature or location.

"No one should be alarmed," he said.

Brazilian doctors treating Chavez told Brazilian weekly newsmagazine Veja they warned Chavez in October 2011 he had less than a year to live.

They said his cancer, which had been confined to his colon and prostate gland, had spread into other parts of his body, including his bones, Veja reported last month.

They alleged Cuban surgeons botched an operation to remove prostate cancer, which may have caused the disease to spread more quickly, the magazine said.

Dr. Salomon Jakubowicz, a well-known Venezuelan doctor, posted on Facebook Tuesday: "Doctors know when the patient has 'accepted death.' Chavez now looks like that."