The following is from an editorial that appeared in the Chicago Tribune:
Venezuela's acting president isn't pointing fingers, but facts are facts: In the 1940s, the imperialists to the north had "scientific laboratories testing how to cause cancer," and 70 years later, Hugo Chavez died of, you guessed it, cancer.
Coincidence? You decide.
Nicolas Maduro, who stepped up to replace Chavez pending an April 14 election, plans to name a scientific panel to investigate whether the president was "poisoned by dark forces that wanted him out of the way."
"I'm not accusing the United States at this very moment," he said. Of course not.
Venezuela's government still won't say what type of cancer afflicted Chavez. But Maduro is "almost certain" foul play was involved, because the cancer "broke with all the typical characteristics of this illness."
Maduro is radiating Chavismo, mainly by making outrageous statements. He's suggested that Chavez, who is now "face to face with Christ," had a hand in the selection of the first Latin American pope. And of course, there's that business about Chavez getting cancer from the "dark forces."
Chavez also said he'd been warned by his friend and mentor, former Cuban President Fidel Castro. "Fidel always told me, 'Chavez, take care. These people have developed technology. ... A little needle, and they inject you with I don't know what.'"
A few years ago, a former Castro bodyguard wrote a book in which he claimed to have documented an astonishing 634 attempts to assassinate him.
We're not sure which is more improbable: that hapless American agents failed to kill Castro all those times, or that they got Chavez on the first try.