President Hugo Chávez not to attend Mercosur summit

[joshcryer]

President Hugo Chavez not to attend Mercosur summit
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will not take part in the summit of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) to be held on Friday in Brasilia, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Thursday. This will be the first summit of the bloc with Venezuela as full member of the regional organization.

"President Chávez is not coming to the summit. Venezuela will be represent by (Foreign Affairs Minister and Executive Vice-President) Nicolás Maduro," a spokesperson for the Brazilian Foreign Ministry told AFP.

[joshcryer]

1. Fresh fears over health of Hugo Chávez

Fresh fears over health of Hugo Chavez
Fears about the health of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, have re-emerged since his unexpected trip to Cuba last week for follow-up treatment after undergoing chemotherapy and surgery earlier this year.

In a letter the national assembly, which had to approve the trip, Chávez said the treatment would include hyperbaric oxygenation, which involves breathing pure oxygen inside a sealed chamber, to repair bone and tissue damage from radiation treatment.

...

"I am under the impression that Chávez's health has suffered a rapid decline. The effort he put into the re-election campaign has had an impact on his illness. He had to leave practically in an emergency and without the formalities and public acts that usually accompany his departure," said Teodoro Petkoff, the editor of Tal Cual newspaper.

...

Since his sudden departure on 29 November, the only message from Chávez, who declared himself to be cancer-free in July, has been via his minister of information, Ernesto Villegas, who tweeted this week that the president had named a new group of ambassadors using an electronic signature. Chávez's own Twitter account has been inactive since 1 November.

[Bacchus4.0]

2. interesting, there is a thread further down that saying otherwise. how abou that. n.t

s

[joshcryer]

3. There are also threads that say Chavez doesn't have cancer.

But they're much further "down."