Venezuela: More Rumors About President Chavez’s Health
By MISNA
The health conditions of Hugo Chavez, in the year which will culminate in the presidential election, are again becoming the subject of questions and assumptions in the press in Venezuela after rumors of an alleged “surprise trip” that the Head of State would have made this weekend to Havana, as published by by journalist Nelson Bocaranda in his ‘blog’ and in his column ‘Run runes’ published by the newspaper ‘El Universal’.
According to unspecified sources in Caracas and Miami, Bocaranda which defines as “trustworthy,” the president recently did not follow the recommendations from his doctors to remain at rest to regain energy after the chemotherapy he underwent in Cuba as a result of a tumor that he was diagnosed with last June.
Bocaranda says that Chavez may have used steroids to mask the consequences of the disease and to demonstrate his ability to tackle a difficult campaign, but now he is suffering side effects, as the medical staff of former Brazilian president Lula, who is also suffering from cancer, also believe.
Even the well-known Brazilian journalist Marvel Pereira argues that Chavez may have developed metastases, and that his health further degraded in October, during the polls.
In November, former U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) Roger Noriega repeatedly stated that, according to medical sources he consulted, the possibility that Chavez could survive until the elections were only 50%.
