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Hugo Chavez: I may need chemotherapy

13 July 2011 22:08 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday he may need radiotherapy or chemotherapy to treat his cancer, which has rattled the OPEC member nation he has dominated for 12 years, APA reports siting Reuters.
The 56-year-old socialist leader’s most detailed comments to date on his condition raised the prospect of a lengthy health battle. Such a scenario could undermine Chavez’s ability to govern Venezuela and run for re-election in 2012.
In a lengthy, dawn telephone chat with state TV, an unusually self-reflective Chavez said his operation last month in Cuba had removed a "baseball-size" tumor.
The threat of malignant cells spreading remained "latent" and needed robust treatment, he added.
"It will probably require known methods ... that could be radiotherapy or chemotherapy to hit hard, with the cavalry, whatever latent possibility is there," Chavez said.
The president said he was undergoing organ-by-organ checks.
"I mustn’t give more details," he said.
Mystery and rumor have surrounded Chavez’s precise condition since surgery in Cuba last month.
Allies insist he is in a recovery phase, but one source close to his medical team has said he faces long chemotherapy for colon cancer.
Though he has reasserted political control with his return to Venezuela last week and wants to appear strong, the charismatic but authoritarian Chavez is notably paler and more contemplative than usual. Sometimes his walking is awkward.
Famous for hours-long speeches and a punishing work schedule, Chavez said he has to scale back his one-man, micromanaging style. He has no obvious successor.
"I need to learn to delegate, let people show their potential," he said, giving an example of his past style when he held an impromptu ministerial meeting in a road outside his Miraflores presidential palace to complain about potholes.