The Londoner

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made it through his fourth cancer surgery late Tuesday, but he is not expected to return to power any time soon. On Saturday, the ailing president announced in a nationally televised speech that he was traveling to Cuba for further treatment, and designated Vice President Nicolas Maduro as his successor if he were unable to return to office. Chavez’s choice to replace him isn’t that surprising. After all, Article 233 of the Venezuelan Constitution established that the vice president should take over if Chavez is unable to fulfill his duties. Maduro, who served ...

The reelection of Hugo Chávez last month for another six-year term as president of Venezuela elicited almost universal praise from Chinese media and foreign policy analysts. Their general consensus was that his reelection was not only good for the people of Venezuela themselves, but also for economic and political ties between the two countries. However, Chinese government and business leaders who have assumed smooth relations for the foreseeable future are at risk of being unnerved because ties are only as healthy as Chávez himself. Recent reports that Chávez is back in Cuba for further cancer treatment serve to highlight that the new Chinese leadership may have therefore inherited a foreign policy time bomb from their predecessors. China’s blithe optimism about the impact of continued Chávez dominance of Venezuelan politics sits uncomfortably with a growing anxiety about the effectiveness of the country’s political risk analysis This anxiety is directly related to ...