Radiation therapy for ailing Chavez
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said that he has begun radiation therapy in Cuba as part of cancer treatment one month after undergoing an operation that removed a tumour.
Mr Chavez said in a phone call broadcast live on Venezuelan television that he had his first radiation session after he arrived late on Saturday.
He said that would be the first of five daily treatments and that he expects to be back in Venezuela for a three-day break starting on Thursday, before returning to Cuba for the next five-day round.
Mr Chavez will be in Cuba at the same time as Pope Benedict XVI, who arrives on the island today after a visit to Mexico.
Mr Chavez did not refer to the pope’s visit to Havana, but he did say he views his own Christian faith and prayer as providing strength in his struggle against cancer.
“In reality, part of the treatment is prayer, faith – faith in God, in our God, in our Christ the redeemer,” Mr Chavez said.
“It’s part of my job to assume with rigour this task of fighting to overcome the difficulties, and to continue living.”
Mr Chavez has frequently clashed with Catholic leaders in Venezuela, but he has often expressed faith in God and has said he views Jesus’ principles as having been essentially socialist.
The Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Federico Lombardi, was asked about reports the pope might meet with Mr Chavez while in Cuba. Mr Lombardi said that as of yesterday morning, there were no such plans.
“That can change, anything can change,” he told reporters.
But he said the pope’s delegation had not heard that Mr Chavez was in Cuba until Sunday morning, and that they reported having received no request for any audience.
