Brazil offers cancer care for ailing Chavez

09 July BBC

The Brazilian government has offered to provide cancer treatment to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who just returned to his homeland after having a cancerous tumor removed in Cuba, the Brazilian Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s government is offering advanced medical care for Chavez, the country’s foreign minister, Antonio Patriota, told his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro.

Brazil offered similar treatment for Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo in the past.

The Brazilian minister first brought up the offer last week, and the two ministers spoke again this week in Venezuela during the festivities for Venezuela’s bicentennial, Folha reported.

Chavez returned unexpectedly Monday to his nation’s capital, where he vowed to win the “battle for life” after having emergency surgery in Cuba. He was there for several weeks undergoing treatment after the surgery, during which doctors removed a cancerous tumor, Chavez said.

He said then he was continuing treatment but did not specify what that treatment entailed, where the tumor was located or when he would return to Venezuela.

Prior to that announcement, the Venezuelan leader had kept an unusually low profile in the three weeks since officials announced he had undergone surgery, sparking rampant rumors about his health and the country’s political future