AFP/Caracas
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday the cancer he has been battling has not spread, but admitted the chemotherapy treatment he is receiving had left him weakened.
Chavez: Chemotherapy hits hard
“Chemotherapy hits hard,” Chavez said, noting that his body’s defences were down and that he had “areas of weakness” due to treatment he has been receiving in Cuba.
“There has been no metastasis,” he added, saying the cancer “had not been detected anywhere else in [his] body.”
Chavez took brief questions from reporters outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, alongside the secretary general of regional body UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) and various cabinet ministers, but again refused to answer the queries on what type of cancer he has.
Chavez, 57, underwent an operation June 20 in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumor in his pelvic area. After a brief return to Caracas, he travelled back to Havana on July 16 for a week to undergo his first chemotherapy treatment.
He insisted his health condition was not “serious” and maintained he was in “excellent spirits” despite returning on Sunday from the latest round of treatment in a week-long stay in Cuba.
The firebrand leftist president, who follows a strict routine of medication, diet and exercise to help him in his recovery, said on Sunday he had a good appetite, was gaining weight and had no nausea from the drugs.
Meanwhile, an influential think-tank said yesterday political violence in Venezuela threatened to undermine the outcome of next year’s election whether Chavez wins a new six-year term or not.
Venezuela is already one of the world’s most dangerous countries, where the presence of organised crime gangs, police corruption, impunity and millions of firearms in civilian hands is a volatile mix.
Yet despite the deep polarisation of society after 12 years of Chavez’s socialist “revolution”, political violence has so far proved to be more of a risk than a reality.
Chavez said yesterday he will nationalise the gold industry, including extraction and processing, and use its output to boost the country’s international reserves.
The move follows a dispute between his government and foreign miners who say the rules limiting the amount of gold that can be exported from the South American nation hurt their efforts to secure financing and create jobs.
Toronto-listed Rusoro, owned by Russia’s Agapov family, is the only large gold miner operating in Venezuela. It produced 100,000 ounces last year.
The gold industry will be just the latest part of the economy to be put under state control by the socialist leader, who said he would issue the necessary decree in the coming days and called on the military to help control the sector.
