Fresh fears over health of Hugo Chávez

Venezuelan president's unexpected trip to Cuba for follow-up cancer treatment prompts fears of rapid decline in health

guardian.co.uk, Virginia Lopez in Caracas, Thursday 6 December 2012

Hugo Chávez, who has returned to Cuba for medical treatment. Photograph: EPA

Fears about the health of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, have re-emerged since his unexpected trip to Cuba last week for follow-up treatment after undergoing chemotherapy and surgery earlier this year.

In a letter the national assembly, which had to approve the trip, Chávez said the treatment would include hyperbaric oxygenation, which involves breathing pure oxygen inside a sealed chamber, to repair bone and tissue damage from radiation treatment.

Chávez, who was diagnosed with an unspecified type of cancer 18 months ago, has not been seen in public since 15 November, when he held a meeting with ministers.

Aides have confirmed his attendance this Friday at a regional Mercosur summit in Brazil, but there is speculation that the recently re-elected president may be facing graver health problems than the government is willing to admit.

"I am under the impression that Chávez's health has suffered a rapid decline. The effort he put into the re-election campaign has had an impact on his illness. He had to leave practically in an emergency and without the formalities and public acts that usually accompany his departure," said Teodoro Petkoff, the editor of Tal Cual newspaper.

Most of Chávez's treatment for cancer has been carried out in Cuba under complete secrecy. The few brief health reports have been made almost entirely by the president. He has been careful not to disclose the type of cancer he has, describing it simply as a "tumour the size of a baseball" that was removed from his pelvic region.

Since first being diagnosed with cancer following emergency surgery while on a trip to Cuba on June 2011, Chávez has flown to Havana for two additional operations and numerous sessions of chemotherapy.

Unlike previous trips to Cuba, when Chávez continued to carry out presidential duties such as televised conferences with his ministers in Havana or tweeting updates on his health, the 58-year-old leader has been uncharacteristically silent.

Since his sudden departure on 29 November, the only message from Chávez, who declared himself to be cancer-free in July, has been via his minister of information, Ernesto Villegas, who tweeted this week that the president had named a new group of ambassadors using an electronic signature. Chávez's own Twitter account has been inactive since 1 November.

This latest trip comes two weeks before regional polls. The elections could give the president's party control of most of the 23 governorships, which, as Chávez himself has said, would consolidate "his perfect victory". His absence, however, could be felt at the polls as strong support for Chávez does not always trickle down to others in his party.

Villegas said Chávez would be back by 10 January, when he is scheduled to be sworn in for a fourth term. "We have Chavez for a while longer," he said.

According to Venezuelan law, if an elected president were to become unable to rule within the first four years of his mandate, elections would have to be called within a 30 days.

In the meantime, Venezuelans can do nothing but wait for news of their president's health.

"The whole country is in this expectant mode. It's as if we were waiting for Godot," Petkoff added.

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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)  

"The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

" .... Soon the one dictator will be gone, and the unification can begin.."