CARACAS – Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez headed to Cuba on Saturday for an unknown period of time for chemotherapy after delegating some powers and saying doctors had found no malignant cells in his body after cancer surgery last month.
Mr Chavez (56) resisted opposition calls to temporarily hand the presidency of the South American Opec member to his vice-president during his absence. Instead, he delegated subordinates limited powers that included budgetary matters.
A former soldier whose long working hours and image of invincibility have helped him win numerous elections, he is now visibly weakened as he plans a bid for re-election in 2012.
Mr Chavez, who has said he had a large tumour removed in June in Cuba, boarded a flight to the Caribbean island on Saturday for chemotherapy. Chavez calls Cuba’s Fidel Castro his mentor.
While he has not said what type of cancer he has or for how long he will be out of the country, he implied he would not stay for long.
“I should say that after the extraction of the tumour and all the studies that we have been doing rigorously until today . . . no other malignant cell has been detected in my body,” Chavez said at a rally where supporters and government ministers broke into tears.
“Based on the doctors’ examination yesterday, in a few days we’ll be back and ready for a final return,” he said.
Mr Chavez’s comments would indicate the cancer has not become metastatic – spread to other parts of the body – and thus more dangerous and difficult to treat.
A source close to Mr Chavez’s medical team in Venezuela has told Reuters he is suffering from colon cancer that needs delicate treatment. But the government has not confirmed the type of cancer.
Opponents say it is impossible for Mr Chavez to effectively govern the oil-producing nation of 29 million people from a Cuban hospital bed. The president resisted calls to step aside, however, since they echo a power vacuum during a short-lived coup in 2002.
Mr Chavez has polarized politics in the western hemisphere since taking office in 1999, with his frequent taunting of the US, aggressive takeovers in Venezuela’s vital oil sector and nationalisations of large swathes of its economy.
He had been warming up for a bid for another six-year term next year when the illness struck. – (Reuters)