Officials in president Hugo Chavez's government have denied rumours that the leftist leader may have died while undergoing cancer treatment in Cuba six months ahead of an election.
In the nine days since he left for Havana to have two final radiation sessions for an undisclosed cancer, Mr Chavez has only addressed Venezuelans by short messages on Twitter to cheer supporters and hail the advances of his socialist "revolution."
His unusually long silence - during previous trips to Cuba the verbose Chavez has made phone calls to state television - has stirred speculation about his health and doubts over his condition as he campaigns for re-election in an October 7th vote.
In the past, Havana published pictures and video of him meeting his mentor, former Cuba leader Fidel Castro. There have no been no images released from this visit, so far.
Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles leapt to the attack and complained that Mr Chavez was running the country remotely by Twitter from a hospital on the communist-led Caribbean island.
Mr Chavez's political ally and president of the National Assembly legislature Diosdado Cabello dismissed the rumours in a tweet: "The truth is that these embittered people don't learn. They've been saying for days that the Comandante died.""The only thing that is lifeless here is that loser," he said, referring to Mr Capriles, the opposition's best hope for defeating Mr Chavez and ending his 13 years in power.
Mr Cabello said yesteday that the president was recovering and would return this week to Venezuela, where he is expected to sign a new labour law that shortens the work week and extends workers' benefits and is due to go into effect on May 1st.
Even opposition journalist Nelson Bocaranda, who has often broken news on Mr Chavez's treatment in the absence of official details from the government, helped to cast doubt on the rumours.
Mr Bocaranda tweeted that the 57-year-old leader watched the Barcelona-Real Madrid soccer game on Saturday with his daughters in Havana.
Venezuelan government officials insist Mr Chavez is fully in touch and capable of governing the country from Cuba.
Science and technology minister Jorge Arreaza said on Twitter that he and foreign minister Nicolas Maduro worked with Mr Chavez yesterday and the president approved various projects.
Mr Capriles, a youthful state governor who is the opposition's "unity candidate" to face Mr Chavez, sharply criticised the all-dominant leader for not doing his job properly.
"Governing by Twitter, approving laws by Twitter without consulting anybody, is an insult to our people. The country's problems cannot be resolved by Twitter," Mr Capriles said.
Before leaving for Cuba on April 14th, Mr Chavez acknowledged that radiation therapy was physically tiring and he skipped the Summit of the Americas in Colombia that weekend on the advice of his doctors.
Mr Chavez's opponents have criticised him for keeping the country in the dark about the extent of his illness, raising suspicions that his cancer may have spread from an initial
baseball-sized tumor that was removed from his pelvis. Despite his cancer, Mr Chavez is seeking a new six-year term at an election that is shaping up to be the toughest political fight of his career due to his ill health and a serious opposition challenge.
His government faces potentially embarrassing revelations about links to drug trafficking from a former Supreme Court justice who fled the country and has reportedly become a US Drug Enforcement Administration informant.
Mr Chavez remains very popular among poorer Venezuelans who have benefited from his social programs, which redistribute some of the country's vast oil wealth.
Almost all recent opinion polls have given Mr Chavez a comfortable double-digit lead over Mr Capriles, and his frequent trips to Cuba for treatment appear not to have changed that.
A survey released today by local pollster Hinterlaces showed 53 per cent of Venezuelan voters planning to back Mr Chavez in October, versus 34 per cent for Mr Capriles, a one-percentage point gain for the president since a similar poll last month.
Reuters