Ordinarily, I would have pity on someone dying of cancer - even someone I despised personally.

But Hugo Chavez is such an unlovely character and has caused untold catastrophes for the Venezuelan people and others in Latin America, that in his case, I am making an exception.

I'm cheering for the Big "C":

President Hugo Chávez's cancer is spreading faster than expected and his doctors fear that he may have only a few months left to live, a former U.S. government official said Wednesday, citing sources inside the Venezuelan government.

"The international team of doctors in charge of treating Hugo Chávez's cancer does not expect him to live more than six months," said Roger Noriega, former U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States.

Noriega's opinion came in a column titled "Hugo Chávez's Big Lie and Washington's Apathy," published on the Internet portal of Inter-American Security Watch.

"Sources who have given me privileged information and documents from inside the Venezuelan government indicate that Chávez's cancer is spreading faster than expected and could kill him before the presidential elections in October 2012," added Noriega, who was also undersecretary of State for Hemispheric Affairs in the Bush administration.

According to Noriega, U.S. officials knew that Chávez was suffering from cancer six months before the Venezuelan president acknowledged it publicly and now they know that it is unlikely that he would be the candidate in the next presidential elections.

There is no doubt a lot of jockeying going on among the Chavistas to see who will replace him. It's time for the opposition to get their act together and unite in order to defeat the extremists who have driven the economy into the ground while stifling dissent and causing mischief all over Latin America.