 Hugo Chavez confirmed Tuesday that he traveled to Cuba for medical tests, where doctors found a new lesion that will require surgery to remove.
| He had his soul removed decades ago; this shouldn't be as hard... |
"The test in Havana found a lesion in the same spot where the other tumor was removed one year ago," Chavez said on state television.
| Ah, local recurrence. Gee, that's tough... |
The left-wing Venezuelan president traveled to Cuba over the weekend without notifying the public, fueling speculation about his health. Chavez reappeared on Tuesday, when state television broadcast his visit to the Veneminsk tractor factory in the Venezuelan state of Barinas.
The rumors about Chavez's health began spreading when Nelson Bocaranda, a columnist at Venezuelan daily El Universal, posted an article to his blog and several tweets saying the president's health had deteriorated and he had traveled to Havana to assess whether he needed surgery. Bocaranda based the reporting on unnamed sources in Miami and Cuba.
The report contradicted official accounts of Chavez's health.
| Of course it did; Hugo's fine, really, and you yammering peasants had better shut up if you know what's good for you... |
The Venezuelan president has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy since his diagnosis in June and he has said since October that he is free of cancer.
Bocaranda added other colorful details. Chavez relies on steroids to maintain his strength and the appearance of good health as the campaign for the Venezuelan presidency against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles heats up, according to Bocaranda, who does not cite sources for the allegation.
Chavez has a team of nine doctors--three from Cuba, one from Venezuela, three from Brazil and two from Spain--who discuss his condition by videochat and could not decide whether to operate, Bocaranda writes.
| The more people you involve, the more paralysis you have in what to do. It's as true in medicine as it is in every other endeavor in life. |
Due to the allegedly poor state of his health and possibility of surgery, Bocaranda says Chavez's mother, children and siblings traveled to Cuba to be with him.
| So as to be closer when Hugo takes his final dive... |
| Wonder how much money they've transfered out, too. |
Venezuelan Minister of Communication Andrés Izarra denied the Bocaranda report on Monday on his Twitter account, calling the writings a "dirty war."Venezuelan state media had denied the rumor.
Before Tuesday, the Venezuelan president had last been seen on Feb. 17 in the state of Vargas, where he said he would use the coming days to prepare for his presidential reelection campaign, according to the Associated Press.
| Going to be tough to campaign in Caracas when he's lying on his back in a Cuban hospital with a morphine drip and a foley catheter... |
Bocaranda's blog post wasn't the only report of Chavez's supposed deteriorating health to appear over the weekend. Merval Pereira, a columnist with Brazil's O Globo, reported on Friday that Chavez's cancer had metastasized and doctors expected it to spread to his liver. Pereira based the report on unnamed Brazilian doctors who he said had reviewed Chavez's medical records.
| Liver mets. Ouch. Those become quite painful when they become large enough to stretch the capsule of the liver. |
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff offered Chavez Brazilian medical assistance in July, but Chavez preferred to seek treatment in Cuba.
| I'd bet on the best Brazilian medicine over the best Cuban medicine, but that's just me. |
Pereira predicted that Chavez's condition would undermine his reelection campaign. "Since the election is in October, it's likely that toward the end it will be very difficult for him to keep up a competitive campaign against a unified opposition," Pereira writes.
| Especially if he's dead by October... |
Rumors regarding Chavez's health have swirled since he fell ill over the summer and had a cancerous tumor removed by Cuban doctors in Havana. The Venezuelan leader treats his disease as a state secret.
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