Caracas: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
who just began a third round of chemotherapy in his fight against cancer, said it was going well.
"I was very much tuned in to business all day, stretched
out there, and I will tell you that about a half hour ago I
finished up what I call the bomb... the chemotherapy's
bombing," Chavez said in a brief phone call to VTV official
state television, after starting the latest round Sunday.
"I am doing well. I am well taken care of. Marvelously
taken care of" by his Cuban-Venezuelan medical team, the
president added.
"Full of joy, and optimism, I was very much tuned in all
day to what was going on in the country and around the world,"
Chavez said.
Chavez, 57, has said he underwent surgery in Cuba in June
for a tumor in his pelvic area. He has not offered more
detailed information on his cancer, for which he underwent
chemotherapy in Cuba in July and August.
Since then Chavez has reduced his public appearances,
lost some weight and his hair from his cancer treatment. He
says he has been working on physical therapy and a recovery
plan that requires him to work fewer hours than normal.
But the leftist populist, a former paratrooper and staunch
critic of the United States who has been in power since 1999,
says he will run in and win the 2012 presidential race.
Chavez has said any further chemotherapy would be
"preventive."
"I had this illness and now we are preparing my body and
soul so that it does not come back," he said Saturday, when he
was shown on television meeting with his key ministers.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 16:33