CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez has been receiving chemotherapy since recovering from a severe respiratory infection in mid-January and “continues his battle for life,” his vice president said recently.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro suggested the chemotherapy was continuing in the government’s first mention of it as among treatments that Venezuela’s cancer-stricken president has received since his Dec. 11 cancer surgery in Cuba.
Maduro made the disclosure after a Mass for Chavez in a new chapel outside the military hospital where authorities say the socialist leader has been since being flown back to Caracas on February 18.
The vice president quoted Chavez as saying he decided to return to Venezuela because he was entering “a new phase” of “more intense and tough” treatments and wanted to be in Caracas for them.
Maduro’s offering of the most detailed rundown to date of Chavez post-operative struggle came hours after an accusation by opposition leader Henrique Capriles that the government has repeatedly lied about Chavez condition.
“We’ll see how they explain to the country in the (coming) days all the lies they’ve been telling about the president’s situation,” Capriles, whom Chavez defeated in October 7 elections, said in a tweet.
Chavez has not been seen nor heard from since going to Cuba for his fourth cancer surgery, except for a set of “proof of life” photos released February 15 while he was still in Havana.
Chavez first revealed an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011, and reported undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy after earlier operations.
