Chavez flies to Cuba to begin radiation therapy

Monday, 26 March 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flew back to Cuba on Saturday to begin radiation treatment for cancer, but said he was in good shape and would be back home in several days.

The socialist leader’s latest trip to Havana will heighten anxiety among supporters worried about his health, fan rumors of a power struggle among his top aides, and leave Chavez absent just as his election rival is stepping up a campaign tour.

Since making a triumphant return to Caracas from Cuba a week ago after a third operation in less than a year to remove a malignant tumor from his pelvis, the 57-year-old had been saying he would start radiation therapy soon.

But until Saturday he had not revealed whether he would go to Cuba or stay in Venezuela for the treatment, which is expected to leave him weaker during his campaign to win a new six-year term at an October 7. vote. Chavez has no clear successor.

“I have decided, on the recommendation of my medical team and my political team, to begin the radiation treatment tomorrow,” Chavez said during a televised cabinet meeting on Saturday before leaving for Maiquetia international airport.

As he addressed white-clad troops gathered on the runway there, government ministers looked on, grim faced. He said he might have more radiation treatment in Venezuela in the future.

Little is known about what kind of cancer the president has, nor how serious it is. So big questions remain about his future.

Chavez has dominated Venezuelan politics for the last 13 years, and his illness has shocked voters in South America’s biggest oil exporter in the run-up to the election.

Some have questioned how fit he would be to govern if he won, and his treatment is expected to stop him from conducting the kind of man-on-the-street campaign that has worked so well in the past to help him drive forward his leftist “revolution.”

Sunday will mark four weeks since Chavez’s most recent surgery at Havana’s high security Cimeq Hospital.

“Thank God, yesterday they removed the last stitches that were left from the operation. All very good,” he said.“I’m walking much better ... without any complications. A month after the operation, we’re ready for the radiation treatment, which will last for around four or five weeks.”

The opposition has called on Chavez to name a formal replacement during his absences in Havana - a proposal he rejects, preferring to govern from his hospital bed.