Pravda: The death of Hugo Chavez, and the trend of hi-tech assassinations in global politics

Pravda: The death of Hugo Chavez, and the trend of hi-tech assassinations in global politics

By GPD on June 7, 2016

by Peter Baofu

Hugo Chavez, the Socialist president of Venezuela for 14 years, died on March 05, 2013, after having courageously fought against cancer in the last few months. Media reports superficially stated “heart attack” as the cause. But a troubling question is, Who killed him? This question is not rhetorical, since its answer points to the trend of hi-tech assassinations in contemporary global politics.

I. HISTORICAL CASES

In the last few years alone, quite a number of prominent individuals who opposed the policies of some powerful states on the world stage had been targeted for hi-tech assassination, which often leaves no trace behind and can kill the victim silently (often in a slow and painful death), and this kind of silent killing becomes an increasingly preferred form of very sophisticated assassination by some powerful states in our time — unlike the crude use of shooting by an assassin in the older days.

For illustration, just consider some controversial cases of both successful and unsuccessful hi-tech assassinations in the past 2 decades, as shown below:

1.  Cristina Kirchner, current president of Argentina, with thyroid cancer in 2011
2.  Ollanta Humala, current president of Peru, with cancer in the gut in 2011
3.  Hugo Chavez, former president of Venezuela, with prostate Cancer in 2011
4.  Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, with cancer of the larynx in 2011
5.  Nestor Kirchner, former president of Argentina, with colon cancer in 2010
6.  Fernando Lugo, former president of Paraguay, with lymph cancer in 2010
7.  Evo Morales, current president of Bolivia, with cancer in the nasal cavities in 2009
8.  Dilma Vana Rousseff, current president of Brazil, with cancer in the lymphatic system
in 2009
9.  Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian secret service officer, with polonium-210
poisoning in 2006
10. Yassar Arafat, former chair of the PLO, with brain hemorrhage in 2004
11. Khaled Meshaal, the leader of the Hamas, with the poisonous shutdown of the brain in 1996