Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is breathing with greater difficulty as a new, severe respiratory infection has taken hold, Venezuela's government said, describing the cancer-stricken president's condition as "very delicate".

A brief statement read on national television by Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas late Monday carried the sobering news about the charismatic 58-year-old leader's deteriorating health.

Villegas said Chavez is suffering from "a new, severe infection". The state news agency identified it as respiratory.

Chavez, 58, has been undergoing "aggressive chemotherapy", Villegas added without elaborating.

Chavez has neither been seen nor heard from, except for "proof-of-life" photos released in mid-February, since submitting to a fourth round of surgery in Cuba on Dec 11 for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area. It was first diagnosed in June 2011.

The government said he returned home on Feb 18 and has been confined to Caracas' military hospital since.

Villegas said Chavez was "standing by Christ and life conscious of the difficulties he faces".

Villegas called on Venezuelans to be on guard in the face of a "psychological war deployed by foreign laboratories with spokespeople in the corrupt Venezuelan right who seek to generate violent scenarios as a pretext for a foreign intervention".

The government, he added, "rejects the hypocritical attitude of Hugo Chavez's historical enemies, who have always shown him hatred, insults and contempt, and who are now using his health situation as an excuse to destabilize Venezuela".

He called on Chavez's supporters, who include thousands of well-armed militiamen, to be "on war footing".

Staunch solidarity

A few hours before the statement, state-run television showed the presidential guard inaugurating a new tank squadron.

"Whatever happens, with Chavez it will always be for us: 'With Chavez everything, without Chavez nothing,' " said General Jose Ornelas, the squadron's commander and head of the armed forces.

Officials and relatives, meanwhile, sent messages of support on Twitter.

One of Chavez's daughters, Maria Gabriela, thanked supporters on Twitter, writing: "All my love to you! We continue to cling to God! Thanks for the messages of solidarity!"

The government has sent mixed messages about Chavez's condition, saying last week that he was still suffering from respiratory problems before declaring the next day that he had held a five-hour meeting with aides.

The opposition said it doubts the meeting ever took place.

Vice-President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's chosen successor, and other senior officials have lashed out at the opposition and rumors that Chavez may be dead or dying, saying it is all part of a campaign to destabilize the nation. Maduro revealed for the first time on Friday that Chavez began receiving a tough new round of chemotherapy in Cuba after a respiratory infection had improved in January, and that the ailing leader had decided to continue the treatment in Caracas.

AP-AFP

(China Daily 03/06/2013 page11)