Latin America: Week in Review, Venezuela
Chávez Returns To Cuba For Chemotherapy Treatment
July 18, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story— Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez headed back to Cuba over the weekend to receive chemotherapy treatment in his ongoing battle with cancer. Chávez, who has not revealed what type of cancer he has, also handed over some of his powers to subordinates before leaving Venezuela. While claiming that doctors have not found malignant cells after his surgery last month to remove a cancerous tumor, Chávez’s recent medical problems have cast doubt on his 2012 reelection bid and his ability to lead the OPEC nation. An unnamed source told the Reuters news agency that the Venezuelan leader is suffering from colon cancer and that it requires delicate treatment, but so far the government has remained quiet about Chávez’s diagnosis. “I should say that after the extraction of the tumor and all the studies that we have been doing rigorously until today … no other malignant cell has been detected in my body,” Chávez said at a rally. “Based on the doctors’ examination yesterday, in a few days we’ll be back and ready for a final return.”
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- Pro-Chávez community organizations in New York’s South Bronx that once received generous grants from the Venezuelan government have seen their funding dry up — and they want to know why. Juan Fajardo reports.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Mexican poet Javier Sicilia said that his son and six friends were suffocated with tape and bandages in a killing that started a nationwide protest.
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that three men appeared in federal court last week on charges of human smuggling along Southern California’s coasts.
- The family of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement killed in Mexico is demanding to know if the firearms that killed him could be traced to the Fast and Furious operation.
Caribbean
- The United Nations and the Haitian National Police (HNP) launched a joint security operation to crack down on criminal activity in areas of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
- A Cuban gay rights activist and his transsexual bride plan to marry on former President Fidel Castro’s birthday next month as a way to advance homosexual rights in the country.
Central America
- A Honduran radio station manager was killed last week in the western department of Lempira, becoming the third journalist to die in the country this year.
- A U.S. college student was killed in a car accident while participating in a summer research program in Costa Rica.
- 104 undocumented immigrants from Guatemala were detained by Mexican authorities in the central state of Queretaro.
Andes
- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos offered a reward Saturday for information leading to the arrest of a female rebel allegedly linked to the kidnapping of four Chinese oil workers
- Authorities banned the sale of alcohol in an Ecuadoran community where 19 people died after drinking bootleg liquor.
- Peru’s President-elect Ollanta Humala took a hard fall in popularity after suspending his brother from his political coalition over ethics concerns, according to an Ipsos Apoyo poll published on Sunday.
Southern Cone
- Former Uruguayan president Juan Maria Bordaberry, who dissolved the Uruguay’s democratic institutions in 1973 and ushered in the country’s 1973-1985 civil-military dictatorship, died Sunday at home under house arrest at the age of 83.
- Paraguayan military doctor Norberto Atilo Bianco lost his final appeal Friday and will be extradited to Argentina to face charges for his involvement in the trafficking of children who were kidnapped with their parents during the 1976-1983 Argentine military dictatorship.
- A lawyer representing 31 of the 33 Chilean miners who famously survived a mine cave-in for 69 days filed a civil lawsuit against the Chilean government on Friday for unsafe conditions at the San Jose mine, where the men were trapped.
- A statement by Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday said the Iranian government was willing to cooperate in investigations of a 1994 bombing at a Jewish center in Argentina that killed 85, but that it was unwilling to extradite the Iranian suspects.
- Paraguay eliminated Brazil 2-0 in a penalty shootout during Sunday’s Copa America semifinal.
Image: chavezcandanga @ flickr.
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