On June 10 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent emergency surgery to take care of a pelvic abscess. Chavez was in the middle of a short tour of Latin America to sign bi-national agreements when he became ill. He fell ill while in Cuba, and is staying at a hospital in Havana. Chavez has already joked, “I got ill in the right place.”

While Chavez has been out recuperating from surgery, the right wing media has been going wild will all manner of accusations. They’ve given false reports of Chavez suffering from a wide array illnesses. The daily La Razon reported that the president had nasal cancer. Other media have have printed rumours that he may have prostate cancer.

The real hardcore reactionary media (by that I mean the probably CIA funded Venezuelan media) have gone so far as to ask “Is Chavez dead?” Of course some of the smaller more extremist media just came right out and claimed he was.

A phoney organization claiming to be “Wikileaks Argentina” put out a tweet claiming an Argentinean embassy cable confirmed Chavez’s death by heart attack while in the Cuban hospital. Since it has been revealed to be a fraud and the Twitter account has been closed.

The rumours of Chavez’s death have been laid to rest by the release of a photo of him with former Cuban President Fidel Castro. He’s also said that he’ll return to office on July 5th.

This illness can hardly be unexpected. President Chavez is known for not taking vacations or resting. In the near 12 years he has been in office hes has not taken a vacation. He’s only taken a few days off for illness and knee surgery. Compare this to George Bush who almost spent an entire year of his Presidency at Camp David or at his parents’ compound, about 9 weeks a year.

While recovering many leaders in the international community has sent messages of support including: Argentinean President Christina Kirchner, Ex-Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and representatives from the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

According Venezuelan state radio Mundial, in Zulia state, an indigenous group carried out a Wayu’u ritual for Chavez’s health. Many other religious groups were reported praying for him as well.

Its so typical the right wing media getting off on the prospect that Chavez might be dead. You can almost see them wringing their hands with a psychotic glee in their eyes ready to conquer Venezuela and dismantle all the progress its made.

This isn’t the first time they’ve done it either, a few years ago when Fidel Castro stepped down and underwent surgery, major media starting saying that he might be dead. Its wasn’t until the former President Castro showed up on television did the collective of ghouls calm down.

Here is Chavez talking with Castro: