Hugo Chavez admits he is in Cuba for cancer care

Pictured in colourful track suits, lounging in a modestly-furnished hospital room, or outdoors poring over a newspaper together (above), Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez look almost like father and son.
 
The remarkable images of the Venezuelan leader convalescing in Cuba, supported by a mentor some three decades his senior, were released to the press hours before a video-taped address revealed that the younger man has cancer.
 
The official story had been that Chavez was in Cuba for a minor operation to remove an abscess on his pelvis. But the length of the Venezuelan leader's stay – he is still in Cuba three weeks after the surgery - led to speculation that he was in far worse health.
 
Last night, friends and enemies of the 56-year-old president, who came to power 12 years ago, were saddened or delighted to see a visibly thinner Chavez, famous for his ability to hold forth without notes for several hours on end, reading a short speech about his cancer.
 
The address was pre-recorded in Havana, it's not known when, and broadcast on pan-American channel Telesur yesterday evening. In it, Chavez gave no indication of when he might return to Venezuela.
 
Chavez claimed that he had indeed undergone surgery for a pelvic abscess but that doctors had also detected cancerous cells, necessitating a second operation. He did not specify which type of cancer he is suffering from but said he was on the road to a "full recovery".
 
He admitted it would be a long process, saying he is still undergoing "complementary treatments" to the surgery which "can't be rushed". He added: "I feel like I'm emerging from a dark abyss and beginning the climb back." He confessed to having made the "fundamental error" of ignoring warning signs about his own ill-health.
 
Chavez said the alert had come from Castro who had told him on an earlier visit to Cuba that he looked ill. "He interrogated me almost like a doctor, and I confessed to him almost like a patient," said Chavez.
 
In an article published in Business Day today, but written before Chavez's broadcast, Mexico's former foreign minister Jorge Castaneda speculated that the Venezuelan leader was being treated in Cuba because only there could secrecy be ensured.
 
Castaneda wrote: "If nothing is seriously wrong with Mr Chavez … unpublicised healthcare in Havana will allow him to keep everything under wraps and return home triumphantly."
 
But this has not happened: Chavez has announced his cancer without waiting for an all-clear. As a result, his supporters have been thrown into uncertainty and the morale of his opponents has been boosted.
 
Why? Some observers believe Chavez's decision to confess to having cancer can only mean that his health is far worse than the optimistic picture he painted of a "full recovery".
 
As Castaneda continued: "If Mr Chavez is terminally ill, his Cuban connection will enable him and the Castro brothers to plot a course for the future... the Castros want to keep Mr Chavez alive and under their wing, at least until he recovers, or they all come up with Plan B." ·