Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, reappeared on Monday after a week long absence, by telephone which was transmitted by the state owned Television Company in which he denied reports that his health continues to rapidly deteriorate. During the short telephone conversation, the president assured the people that his treatment continues satisfactorily and that he will be ready to defeat the opposition in the upcoming presidential elections on October 7th.
“We will give him a devastating blow. I as candidate still have not entered the campaign. I am governing with my duties as Chief of State, Chief of the government from afar, but in this special situation, of which I will leave in the next few days, soon I will be there,” stated Chávez during the phone conversation.
Nonetheless, Chávez did not provide specific details about his treatment which he is receiving in Cuba. In the last week, Chavez has not appeared in public and was only seen in a prefilmed video in which he appears with a labored voice Chavez said his faith that Jesus Christ would grant him a miracle.
The Spanish-language press began to publish multiple stories stating that the president was losing his battle against cancer and was spending much of his time on sedatives to ease his pain. On Monday, Rafael Poleo, editor and chief of the publication, El Nuevo País as well as the magazine, Zeta, stated, “The president of Venezuela is no longer in a condition to govern. He has entered the final stages of his disease and is suffering extreme physical pain which requires the constant use of sedatives.”
Chávez has remained in Cuba to continue with his cancer treatments after doctors removed a malignant tumor during his recent surgery on February 26th. Yet, according to journalist, Nelson Bocaranda, the president’s medical team recently stopped the radio therapy treatments he was receiving. Bocaranda also reported that the Cuban doctors finally accepted what other doctors had already been saying: that they should stop administering radio therapy to the pelvis due to the fact that, “the previous radiation treatments had fractured the femur bone.”
Chávez, however, denied these reports in his phone conversation on Monday. He added that he is undergoing physical therapy and under doctors orders to rest. Yet other doctors believe that problems such as a broken femur suggest that the cancer has metastasized into the bones and does not bring a positive prognosis for the President.
According to Venezuelan doctor, José Marquina, “The president faces a difficult situation with a very bleak prognosis. It is very possible that Chávez will not be alive by the end of 2012.”
