Now you see him, now you don’t.  That seems to be the story out of Venezuela this week right as the 23 states brace for the December 16 governorship elections.

While I find it immoral to wish ill health on any person, it is difficult not to get wrapped up in the speculative drama surrounding the current status of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, whose increasingly mysterious trips to Havana have many people worried about the inevitable scramble for power that would be left in the vacuum.

Following more than three weeks of near-total silence as he received cancer treatment in Cuba, Chávez suddenly reappeared in Venezuela this past Friday to spent ten minutes boasting in front of TV cameras, oddly enough talking about poetry.  But it wasn’t to last for long.