Hugo Chavez says he’s beaten cancer

October 21, 2011 - 15:27 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela declared on Thursday, Oct 20 that he had beaten cancer, less than five months after he stunned Venezuelans by revealing that he had undergone emergency surgery to remove a tumor while in seclusion in Cuba.“No abnormal cellular activity exists,” said Mr. Chavez in comments broadcast on state media while on a visit to western Venezuela, where he was preparing to visit a Roman Catholic shrine. “I’ve begun to exit the cave,” said the president, dressed in a green military uniform.

Despite Mr. Chavez’s announcement, which he made after a brief trip to Cuba for a checkup, mystery still shrouds his condition. He has never publicly revealed what type of cancer afflicted him. Altogether, Mr. Chavez, 57, underwent four chemotherapy treatments, including three in Cuba and one in Venezuela, according to the government.

Confusion persists in Venezuela about how healthy or sick Mr. Chavez may be. Salvador Navarrete, a prominent Venezuelan doctor who describes himself as the president’s former personal surgeon, said this week that Mr. Chavez had less than two years to live, attributing his illness to a “very aggressive” tumor in the pelvic area.

Dr. Navarrete, a former militant in Mr. Chavez’s political movement, said he drew his conclusions from recent discussions with Mr. Chavez’s family. He made his claims in an interview with M Semanal, the weekly magazine of the Mexican newspaper Milenio.

In the interview, Dr. Navarrete offered other details about Mr. Chavez’s health. He said the president had been treated for bipolar disorder, and that Mr. Chavez smoked cigarettes at times of tension in his private chambers and consumed copious amounts of coffee throughout the day.

An employee in Dr. Navarrete’s office in Caracas said he was unavailable for comment. State media has dismissed Dr. Navarrete’s claims, with Mario Silva, the host of a nightly program that disparages Mr. Chavez’s opposition, contending that Dr. Navarrete was never the president’s physician.

Private Venezuelan news organizations reported this week that the officials from the Sebin, Mr. Chavez’s secret intelligence police, had appeared at Dr. Navarrete’s office this week to question him.

Mr. Chavez, while refraining from discussing the specifics of his tumor, looked ahead on Thursday to next year’s presidential elections. Taunting his opponents, he said, “It’s easier for a donkey to pass through the eye of a needle than for you to beat me,” The New York Times reported.