Chavez retains secrecy over cancer therapy in Cuba
By IAN JAMES
Associated Press
CARACAS, Venezuela -- In his monthlong fight against cancer, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez has placed utmost importance on secrecy, carefully
offering only scraps of information about his condition.
Now, as he begins planned chemotherapy in Cuba, Chavez appears to have
found the perfect place where he can tightly guard details of his
illness and keep the prying eyes of the news media far away.
The Venezuelan leader first underwent surgery in the island nation on
June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor from his pelvic region. He returned
Saturday night, saying he would be starting a "second phase of treatment."
Typical of the cone of silence Chavez has lowered over his health
problems, he hasn't said how long the chemotherapy is likely to last,
and there was no immediate confirmation from either Cuba or Venezuela
that the treatments had in fact begun.
Chavez, 56, had said he would begin the treatments in Havana on Sunday
to ensure cancer cells don't reappear. He has also said he has been open
about the details of his medical condition.
Maria Teresa Romero, professor of international studies at the Central
University of Venezuela, said controlling information about his illness
is important for Chavez to maintain both his hold on power and an image
of strength at home.
"The secrecy, the trust is assured" in Cuba, she said, "which is
something that wouldn't be assured if he were treated in Brazil, for
example, or here in Venezuela. It would be much more difficult to keep
secret everything they are going to do him."
Paul Webster Hare, a former British ambassador to Cuba from 2001 to
2004, said Chavez is likely receiving the same sort of protections and
accommodations that ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro himself would
expect. Hare was also the deputy head of mission for the British
Diplomatic Service in Venezuela from 1994 to 1997.
"Everything there will be arranged as if a member of the Castro family
were being treated - strict secrecy, encrypted communication with
Venezuela, transport, etcetera, just as if a favorite son had returned,"
Hare said.
"Just as there is no accountability for the subsidies that Venezuela
provides Cuba, the political relationship is based on shared commitments
and understandings between the leaders that are never subjected to
institutional scrutiny."
On top of that, Hare said, "non-Cuban specialists could be more easily
flown in to Havana than in the countries with a free and inquiring media."
When Fidel Castro himself was gravely ill in 2006, a Spanish surgeon,
not a Cuban, treated him.
Several messages were posted on Chavez's Twitter account Sunday,
including one saying he was watching Venezuela's national soccer team
play Chile in the Copa America. He cheered his country's team as
"glorious" after it won and made the semifinals for the first time.
"Viva Venezuela!! We will live and we will be victorious!!" one message
said. In earlier messages, Chavez said he was watching along with Fidel
Castro, "together with our relatives and all the medical team."
Chavez has been treated by a team of Cuban and Venezuelan doctors since
doctors removed a cancerous tumor that Chavez said was the size of a
baseball. He hasn't said what type of cancer he was diagnosed with nor
specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his
pelvic region.
Government officials have deferred to Chavez to provide the information
he chooses about his prognosis, while opposition leaders have demanded
that the president come clean about what exactly his medical condition
is. Three days before he left for Cuba, Chavez acknowledged for the
first time that he expected to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.
The Venezuelan leader also revealed on Saturday that his foreign
minister, Nicolas Maduro, had traveled to Brazil in recent days to look
into a proposal by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, herself a cancer
survivor, for him to be treated at a hospital in Sao Paulo. He didn't
say whether that option was still being considered, or whether it had
been a possible alternative to treatment in Cuba.
Romero noted that when Paraguay's president, Fernando Lugo, recently
underwent cancer treatment in Brazil, the hospital provided regular
medical reports on his condition. Details have also been released about
the type and location of Lugo's tumors and his chemotherapy process.
"In this case, it would be a risk from the Venezuelan government's
perception to have (Chavez) in a place that wouldn't guarantee ... the
secret about the entire treatment process that is being carried out,"
Romero said.
Cancer patients regularly undergo chemotherapy in Venezuela, and Chavez
didn't offer a detailed explanation of his reasons for returning to Cuba
before he departed for Havana.
"Evidently, the president feels much more confidence in the circle - not
only medical, but also political - that he has around him in his allies
in Cuba," said Asdrubal Mendez, a Venezuelan political analyst. "There's
an issue of trust. One always wants to be with whoever is closest
ideologically, also from an emotional point of view."
While regular health briefings would be expected in similar
circumstances in many other countries, some world leaders have kept a
tight lid on their medical tribulations.
In France, for example, the health of presidents has long been shrouded
in secrecy. The public didn't learn of President Georges Pompidou's bone
marrow cancer until after he died of it in 1974. There were rumors of
health problems throughout much of the 14-year tenure of President
Francois Mitterrand, who ordered his doctor to systematically falsify
his health bulletins. He died of prostate cancer just months after
leaving office in 1995.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt kept his polio semi-secret during
his presidency. And more recently, the government of North Korea has
divulged few details after reports emerged that leader Kim Jong Il
suffered a stroke in 2008.
Nor has Cuba ever said officially what condition afflicted former
President Fidel Castro in July 2006, though it was widely reported to
have been complications involving the intestinal ailment diverticulitis.
Returning to the public eye two years later, Castro said he had been "at
death's door" but did not give details on the illness.
Still, some suggest Chavez's decision to be treated in Cuba may be
motivated simply by an interest in maintaining continuity in his
treatment after his surgeries in Cuba.
"Since he was treated in Cuba, it makes sense to return to return to the
island for chemotherapy," said Miguel Tinker Salas, a Latin American
studies professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Footage on Venezuelan television showed Chavez arriving at the airport
in Havana on Saturday night, where he was greeted by Cuban President
Raul Castro.
Cuban state media published a brief report on Chavez's arrival and a
photo of the two presidents, but left out medical details. During
Chavez's previous visit, Cuban officials said privately that it was up
to Chavez's government to release any information.
Chavez has insisted on retaining most of his responsibilities while in
Cuba and has said he would use an "electronic signature" involving an
eight-digit personal code that will allow him to remotely approve
government measures.
"Whether in Havana, Moscow, Washington, Buenos Aires, you sign
electronically and the security is also totally protected so that there
can't be a false signature or anything," Chavez said during a televised
Cabinet meeting in Caracas before his departure.
As to his treatment, Chavez said medical checks since his surgery have
found that "no malignant cell has been detected in any other part of my
body." He said there is always a risk cancer cells might reappear, "and
therefore there's a need to attack hard through chemotherapy."
On the outskirts of Havana on Sunday, some Venezuelans in a group of
about 250 who came for medical treatment under a government accord said
they were praying for Chavez and hopeful for the leader's recovery.
"Cuba is a brother country," said 21-year-old Nestor Vazquez after he
attended Mass. "I imagine the president feels like he's at home here.
Also he knows there are good doctors."
---
Associated Press writers Peter Orsi and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana and
Patricia Rondon Espin in Caracas contributed to this report.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/17/v-fullstory/2318359/chavez-retains-secrecy-over-cancer.html
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