Cancer is a personal tragedy. Even his bitterest foes should wish Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, a speedy recovery from the illness that has now sent him to doctors in Ha-vana for the second time in six weeks. There is no way of knowing whether this is likely: Mr Chavez's government treats the details of his condition as a state secret, in the worst traditions of the Kremlin or North Korea (see page 34). But his supporters should be under no illusion: even before the man himself was struck down, chavismo was in terminal decline, outside Venezuela at least.
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