The Brazilian government is offering medical treatment for the leader of Venezuela. Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Antonio Patriota, informed the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, that Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez could treat his cancer at a hospital in Brazil if he so wished.
So far no one in Caracas has responded to the offer from the Dilma Rousseff administration. Recently the president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, has been treating lymphatic cancer in Brazil.
Chavez is back in his country, after returning from Cuba where he was hospitalized for 24 days and had a cancerous tumor in his abdomen removed. It is not clear exactly what kind of cancer he had.
Speaking in public for the first time in almost two months, on Tuesday, July 5, wearing a military uniform and his trademark red beret, Chavez promised the Venezuelan people that he would win his battle against cancer.
Venezuela was celebrating 200 years of independence and later Chavez attended a concert by the Sinfónica Juvenil Simón Bolívar.
“The best cure for any disease is love. Thank you for this special love that has come from not only Venezuela but other parts of the world,” he declared to a cheering crowd in front of the presidential residence in Caracas.
The Venezuelan president also thanked his peers from Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay for having attended the Tuesday bicentenary celebrations of the country’s independence, a huge military parade with an arch-display of soldiers in colonial uniforms with probably the most modern combat gear of the region.
“For my soul, our soul, our spirit, for our struggle for life this is a very powerful and inspiring message, your presence here with me, my good friends, my good companions,” said Chavez on receiving the leaders in the presidential Miraflores Palace from where he and his guests followed on a screen the celebrations.
Uruguay’s Jose Mujica, Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo and Bolivia’s Evo Morales arrived in Caracas on the Venezuelan presidential aircraft which was specially sent to pick up the three heads of state without virtually any previous notice.
Chavez early Monday returned unexpectedly from Cuba where on his own admission underwent two serious surgeries linked to a pelvic cancer tumor, of which no further details have been given.
Chavez arrived in Cuba early June and only returned to Caracas a month later for the grand celebration following growing demands from the opposition to inform the people of Venezuela what was really happening and for the Vice-president to respect the constitution and take over as caretaker president.
The official television network showed Chavez with his two daughters Rosa and Rosines, as he presented the visiting leaders the medical team that is looking after his recovery.
“Here we are, moving ahead, living and we will be victorious, this is the beginning of the return,” said Chavez dressed in a blue suit and with the presidential sash in the country’s colors on the launching of the parade.
However contrary to his loquacious tradition this time Chavez 34 minutes long speech was a rare occasion since he has had national television and radio broadcast uninterruptedly for almost eight hours.
Furthermore political analysts are not only baffled by his surprise return, which some of his opponents describe as a theatrical mise-en-scene, but also with the language the fiery leader has been using since he again landed in Caracas.
Before and in anticipation of next year’s presidential election he would threaten to squash, liquidate, obliterate and “turn into cosmic dust” his political enemies; now however he is calling on his followers “we must defeat them and defeat them in peace”.
“I’m again a cadet,” said jokingly Chavez admitting now he must obey orders and keep to a strict way of life that includes a diet, daily medical controls, physical exercise and a drastic reduction of the liters of coffee the tenacious hyper-active leader use to consume.
The parade was followed by thousands who turned to the streets of Caracas, mostly dressed in red shirts as a symbol of support to the populist leader.
But in spite of the impressive military display to recall victory at the battle of Carabobo which marked the end of Spanish domination 200 years ago, many doubts remain as to the graveness of Chavez (56) medical situation and who would or could succeed him to lead his cherished Bolivarian revolution he has been preaching and implementing for the last twelve years and ahead of another presidential bid in 2012.
