CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced Saturday night that his cancer has returned and that he will undergo another surgery in Cuba.
Mr. Chávez, who won re-election on Oct. 7, also said for the first time that if his health were to worsen, his successor would be Vice President Nicolás Maduro.
“We should guarantee the advance of the Bolivarian revolution,” Mr. Chávez said on television, seated at the presidential palace with Mr. Maduro and other aides.
The president said that tests had shown a return of “some malignant cells” in the same area where tumors were previously removed. He said he would return to Cuba on Sunday to undergo surgery in the coming days.
Mr. Chávez called it a “new battle.” It is to be his third operation to remove cancerous tissue in about a year and a half.
The 58-year-old president first underwent cancer surgery for an unspecified type of pelvic cancer in Cuba in June 2011, after an operation for a pelvic abscess earlier in the month found the cancer. He had another cancer surgery last February after a tumor appeared in the same area. He has also undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
Mr. Chávez made his most recent trip to Cuba on Nov. 27, saying he would receive hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Such treatment is regularly used to help heal tissues damaged by radiation treatment.
He said that he had been coping with pain and that while he was in Cuba thorough exams detected the recurrence of cancer.
He arrived back in Caracas on Friday after 10 days of medical treatment in Cuba, but until Saturday night had not referred to his health. His unexplained decision to skip a summit meeting on Friday of regional leaders in Brazil had raised suspicions among many Venezuelans that his health had taken a turn for the worse.
Mr. Chávez said that he was requesting permission from lawmakers to travel to Havana, and that he hoped to have good news after the surgery.
Malignant Cells Found, Hugo Chávez to Have Cancer Surgery
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Malignant Cells Found, Hugo Chávez to Have Cancer Surgery
