Hugo Chavez near death: President Chavez battles for life and hope rises (Video)

Venezuelans are keeping hope alive. As murmurings that President Hugo Chavez is near death rise, so does the nation’s hope for his chances of survival. According to a Mar. 1 Associated Press report, a recent poll says nearly three in five Venezuelans believe their president will return to power.

This rising hope is contrary to a recent NBC40.net report about increasing doubt among Venezuelans. It wrote, “Some Venezuelans have questioned whether the socialist president is at a military hospital in Caracas at all, whether he even returned from Cuba or whether he is in fact still alive. Many Venezuelans say they no longer know what to believe.”

President Chavez, who is battling cancer has been out of the public eye since his Dec. 11 surgery in Cuba, and his self-appointed successor Nicolas Maduro reiterated his Dec. 20 statement that the president “is battling there for his health, for his life, and we're accompanying him.”

The government says he has been breathing with the help of a tracheal tube after surviving a serious respiratory infection and is undergoing treatment for “respiratory insufficiency.”

The nation is choosing to focus on optimism. “The president's prolonged absence and his critical situation have not been converted into massive pessimism about his return Luis Vicente Leon, chief of the Datanalisis polling firm tweeted Thursday, according to the Associated Press. According to Leon, in a recent poll, nearly 58 percent of Venezuelans believe Chavez will recover, 30 percent believe he will not return to power, 12.5 percent are undecided and one percent believe he was never sick.

Leon told The Associated Press that he thought the poll reflected people's desire not to believe the worst about a loved one. The government’s reports of meetings with the ailing president fuel the nation’s optimistic approach. “The government has sent permanent messages that President Chavez will return, that he meets with the vice president for five hours,” Leon added.

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