Breaking News - Chavez's absence fuels speculation about Venezuela's future

[NewsCaster]

Miraflores Palace via ReutersVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez blows a kiss from the door of an airplane before departing to Cuba at Simon Bolivar airport in Caracas on Dec. 10. Chavez flew to Cuba for cancer surgery, vowing to return quickly, but has not been seen in public since. By Kerry Sanders, Correspondent, NBC News MIAMI -- It’s been 40 days since anyone has publicly seen or heard from Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.

Keith Rosenn, a law professor at the University of Miami with extensive experience in Latin American legal affairs, asks what is on so many minds: Did Chavez die at some point after flying to Cuba on Dec. 10?

“It’s possible Chavez could be dead for a substantial period of time before we know he’s dead and why he died,” Rosenn said. “He’s in Cuba after all.”

Chavez, in Havana suffering from an unspecified type of cancer, has been treated repeatedly by doctors on the communist island.

Slideshow: Hugo Chavez through the years / The life of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from his rise as a lieutenant colonel after his failed coup attempt in 1992.Launch slideshow

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