Chavez gives speech and sings after treatment
Venezuelan president gives rousing performance on his return home after latest round of radiotherapy for cancer in Cuba.
Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president, has strode, sung and given a rousing speech in an apparent show of vigour after his latest cancer treatment in Cuba.
His actions came during an address to the nation on Friday, after he flew back from Havana where he has completed six rounds of radiation therapy.
Five months before presidential elections, the country has been awash with rumours that Chavez, who had only been seen live in public once in the previous month, was dying from his illness.
With Venezuelans watching on live TV for any sign of his condition, Chavez walked with relative ease from his plane, hugged ministers, inspected a military guard and improvised a song at the end of a 20-minute speech.
“I can tell you that in the last few days we successfully completed the radiation cycle, as planned by the medical team,” Chavez said in a strong voice.
“I come with great optimism that this treatment will have the effects we hope for, always asking God to help us and give us the miracle of life to keep serving.”
The official line in recent weeks has been that Chavez was out of the public limelight due to the effects of radiation treatment, but is on the road to recovery, and will soon begin his re-election campaign ahead of the October 7 vote.
But there has been speculation, stoked by leaks from pro-opposition journalists citing sources in Chavez’s medical team, that his condition may have turned more grave.
‘Rigorous’ continuation
The implications of Chavez’s death would be enormous for the South American OPEC member nation that the president has dominated for the last 13 years without grooming a successor.
Rumours have been flying of a nascent succession struggle among his closest allies.
Meanwhile, opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles is struggling to win public attention amid the national obsession over Chavez’s condition.
Without giving any clues as to the details of his cancer, Chavez said he must continue “rigorously” following medical instructions in coming days.
“But as the hours and days pass, I’m sure that with God’s favour, medical science and this soldier’s body, I will get back to where I must be, in the front line of the battle, alongside the Venezuelan people, promoting the socialist revolution,” he said.
Opposition politicians say Chavez, who has spent about 100 days of the last year in Cuba since being diagnosed with cancer, has left Venezuela in paralysis.
“He is a president who never delegates anything. Even the most mundane, daily decision in a ministry, people don’t dare take decisions if they think they don’t have the president’s blessing,” Capriles ally Maria Corina Machado said.
“This is a country that is practically paralyzed.”
‘Completely cured’
Chavez’s condition remains a closely guarded secret, with few details divulged beyond the fact he has had three operations in a year to remove two malignant tumours in his pelvic region.
The president declared himself “completely cured” at the end of 2011, only to acknowledge a recurrence of cancer early this year.
That has fed skepticism and speculation among Venezuelans over Chavez’s future.
The wider region is also watching the saga closely.
Communist-run Cuba depends on subsidised Venezuelan oil to keep its ailing economy afloat, while the United States has long viewed Chavez as its principal foe in the region.