Adan Chavez tipped as "Venezuela's Raul Castro"

By Nestor Rojas Mavares Aug 2, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Caracas - Adan Chavez enjoys the trust of his younger brother to the point where he is being tipped as a likely successor to ailing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

President Chavez, currently battling cancer, has even joked in public about Adan being the 'successor,' although opposition leaders have said such remarks could merely be part of the president's provocative style.

Nevertheless, the president's admission that he is fighting cancer has sparked doubts about whether he will be able to stand for re-election in 2012 and raised the real possibility of his elder brother taking his place.

Adan Chavez is regarded as the president's most faithful collaborator. The governor of the Chavez family's home state of Barinas is seen as an educated and reserved man who lacks Hugo's charisma.

Some are already calling him the 'Venezuelan Raul,' in reference to Cuban President Raul Castro, who took over the reins from his brother Fidel five years ago.

Adan Chavez has been appearing in public more often since it was announced a month ago that the president had undergone cancer surgery and chemotherapy in Cuba.

Hugo Chavez even asked his brother whether he was preparing to step into is shoes during a televised broadcast to the nation last week. He noted that Adan appeared to have groomed himself very well.

'Are you preparing for the succession?' the president asked. 'I can see you are...you look so nicely shaven. Did you have (cosmetic) surgery?'

However, the president sought to dispel rumours of a family handover of power. 'They have now started saying Adan would become my successor, then they said my daughter Maria Gabriela would also become my successor, but let them not meddle with Maria,' he said.

'I am going to stand in the 2012 elections and I will win again,' Chavez said.

When the president celebrated his 57th birthday last week, his brother Adan sang to him from Barinas - an act widely interpreted as a way to present the 'successor' on official television.

'Congratulations dear brother, dear comrade, president,' Adan said while announcing a string of cultural performances to mark the occasion.

Adan is widely regarded as the regime's best candidate in the event that Hugo Chavez is unable to contest the presidential election next year.

This comes despite a controversy in June - when rumours over the president's state of health were rife - over the Barinas governor's warning of a possible armed struggle.

Venezuela's revolution was born as Spain's former colonies in Latin America celebrated the bicentenary of their liberation, Adan Chavez said in a serious tone in Barinas.

'It took place through elections, and we want to hold that course, a peaceful course which allows us to build Bolivarian Socialism,' he said.

He noted, however, that the government remained conscious of 'the dangers that lie ahead' and that the 'enemy does not rest.'

'As real revolutionaries, we should not forget other methods of battle,' Chavez said in his Barinas speech.

The secretary of the opposition alliance Mesa de Unidad said the president's brother had been mistaken in raising the possibility of armed violence.

'He is wrong in implying that there could be a way other than the democratic one, because Venezuelans are a democratic people,' Ramon Guillermo Aveledo said. The governor of Barinas did not respond.

Adan Chavez held a string of key government posts, including education minister and ambassador to Havana, before being elected governor of Barinas in 2008.

President Chavez has acknowledged that it was his brother Adan who introduced him to left-wing writings and ideology.

Adan Chavez studied physics at Los Andes University then taught mathematics at secondary schools and universities.

He became drawn to left-wing groups in western Venezuela as a young man, at a time when guerrilla movements were being extinguished.

Adan joined the Party of the Venezuelan Revolution, headed by the former guerrilla leader Douglas Bravo, while his brother Hugo joined the army. He later maintained contacts with leftist groups that were involved in the failed coup attempt that Hugo Chavez led in 1992.

Adan Chavez is one of the founders of the president's United Socialist Party of Venezuela.