Latin America: Week in Review, Venezuela

Venezuela’s Chávez Plans For 2012 Re-election Bid

July 25, 2011 By Staff

Top Story — In a newspaper interview published on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said that he will seek another six year term as president of the Andean nation despite his recent battle with cancer. Chávez returned Saturday from Cuba where he received chemotherapy for an unspecified cancerous tumor with the Venezuelan leader saying that no malignant cells were found and that he was arriving home in better health than when he left. In last September’s parliamentary elections, Chávez’s opponents gained crucial victories and have recently used his illness to cast doubt on his ability to rule the OPEC nation of 29 million people. However, Chávez pushed aside those rumors during the interview, claiming that he is fully capable of running the government. “I have medical reasons, scientific reasons, human reasons, reasons of love and political reasons to keep myself at the front of the government and the candidacy with more force than before,” Chávez said.

Read More From Reuters.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Caribbean

Central America

Andes

  • Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa threatened Saturday to expel Inter American Press Association chief Gonzalo Marroquín for calling him a “dictator” on his visit to the country.
  • Peruvian President-elect, Ollanta Humala, aims to keep economic growth rates above 6 percent and reduce poverty by reforming social programs, the incoming finance minister said on Saturday.
  • Three miners died from lack of oxygen early this weekend at a coal mine in the same remote area in northeastern Colombia where two other miners died two days earlier, the Ingeominas national mining industry regulatory agency said.

Southern Cone

Image: Chavezcandanga @ Flickr

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