Chávez Suggests US Would be Behind Presidents’ Cancer

The president Hugo Chávez stated yesterday afternoon that he found it strange and suspicious that several leaders of the region have suffered from cancer-related health issues lately and suggested that this could have non-natural causes, pointing directly at what he calls the “northern empire.”

Quoting recently revealed medical experiments the U.S.A. did in Guatemala in the forties, Chávez stressed that he is not accusing Washington and that he has no proof, but wondered, “Would it be strange that (the people from the United States) had developed a technology to induce cancer and nobody knows it up to now and this is discovered in 50 years or who knows how many?”

“It’s very difficult to explain at this point using, for example, the law of probabilities what has been happening to some of us (leaders) of Latin America” said Venezuela’s head in a televised speech, referring to the recently announced thyroid cancer diagnosis of his ally, Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández.

Chávez repeatedly said that Washington is behind a plot to dethrone him, but in his latest statement he went further in his suspicions of conspiracy.

“I don’t know, I only share the thought, but this is very, very, very odd that we have gotten cancer,” claimed the president, who was operated on because of pelvic cancer last June.

Chávez pointed out that, with Cristina’s diagnosis, several heads of state in the region have had this condition, including Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s current and former presidents respectively, and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, as well as himself.

“Well, we’ll have to take care of Evo. Evo, take care. Correa, take care. Of course, you never know,” said Chávez, who also mentioned Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who had to leave office in 2006 due to a disease that, although it hasn’t been formally announced, may have been cancer.

He highlighted that Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff satisfactorily concluded treatment in August for a malign tumor under her left arm, for which she was operated on in 2009 when she was a presidential candidate.

“Dilma, at least she overcame it; next it’s me and boom, entering election year and soon after Brazilian former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has a tumor in his larynx, and now Cristina… this is a bit difficult to explain,” he insisted.

Chávez, aged 57, underwent an operation in June in Cuba to extract his carcinogenic pelvic tumor. Between July and September he received four rounds of chemotherapy in Cuba and Venezuela, and has said that tests have shown that he is now cancer free.

The leader hasn’t revealed where the tumor was located or what type of cancer was diagnosed.

Chávez remarked that Cuban head Fidel Castro had warned him that the U.S.A. has the newest technologies and supposedly has resorted to poisoning to kill its enemies.

“Fidel has always told me ‘Chávez, be careful… look, beware the technologies these people have developed… be careful with what they feed you. Watch out for a small needle that they inject you with I don’t know what,” Chávez elaborated.

“I’m not blaming anyone. I’m just making use of my freedom to reflect and to comment on these strange and hard to explain facts,” he stated.