Hugo Chávez May Need Chemotherapy To Treat Cancer

July 14, 2011 By Staff

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Wednesday that he may need radiation or chemotherapy to treat the cancerous tumor removed in Cuba last month that he described as the “size of a baseball.” Though Chávez says the cancer has not spread, he has yet to publicly disclose what kind of cancer he has. “I’m in a second state of the sickness, which is an organ-by-organ assessment and other factors of which I should not give more details,” Chávez said. He received the Catholic rite of extreme unction on Tuesday, which he said would help fortify his body against malignant cells.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Texas Governor Rick Perry and the National Rifle Association criticized on Wednesday a proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to record multiple sales of semi-automatic assault rifles in U.S. states that border Mexico.
Mexican police detained suspected hitman Javier Beltrán Arco and two other suspected members of Mexico’s Knights Templar drug gang in the state of Michoacán on Wednesday.
American reality TV producer Bruce Beresford-Redman was ordered Tuesday to return to Mexico to face charges for the murder of his wife in Cancún.

Caribbean

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday several defendants have been charged in a Haitian bribery scheme.
Physicians are threatening to stop serving nearly a million Puerto Ricans as a result of a dispute between the island’s government and an insurance company over reimbursements for treating poor people.

Central America

The Obama administration is taking Guatemala to an arbitration panel for failing to enforce its labor laws, as it is obliged to under the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
The governments of Costa Rica and Panama are in talks to eliminate the requirement to show a passport when traveling between the two countries.
The Los Angeles Times reports on Pro Búsqueda, an organization that has located almost half of the disappeared from El Salvador’s civil war.
A judge found former Miss Honduras Bélgica Nataly Suárez not guilty of money laundering.

Andes

A Colombian mayoral hopeful who was shot last weekend in the southwestern city of Cali died of his wounds.
A month-long prison standoff between armed inmates and Venezuela’s National Guard ended peacefully Wednesday as the government transferred more than 800 prisoners out of a notorious jail on the outskirts of the capital.
Pacific Rubiales has tendered 1 million barrels of Colombian Castilla crude and expects to name winning bids this week, trade sources said Wednesday.

Southern Cone

Chilean President Sebastian Piñera submitted a draft of a civil unions bill to members of the Alianza coalition, moving closer toward fulfilling a promise to voters during his presidential campaign that he would legalize same-sex unions.
Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral was laid to rest in his home country on Wednesday after being killed by gunmen on his way to the airport in Guatemala on Sunday.
A plane flying out of Recife, Brazil on Wednesday crash-landed in an empty lot, killing all sixteen people onboard.
Both the Chilean and Uruguayan national teams have advanced to the quarterfinals in the 2011 Copa America soccer tournament, after Chile defeated Peru and Uruguay beat Mexico on Tuesday.

Image: Chavezcandanga @ Flickr.

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