Chavez Suspicious of Latin American Leaders’ Cancer

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez raised questions this week over whether the United States has developed a way to give Latin American leaders cancer.
Chavez Suspicious of Latin American Leaders’ Cancer
12/29/2011
Updated:
4/12/2012
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez wondered aloud on Dec. 28 if there was a plot against Latin American leaders to give them cancer. (Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez raised questions this week over whether the United States has developed a way to give Latin American leaders cancer.

Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez was diagnosed with cancer last week. Chavez himself had an operation in Cuba to remove a cancerous growth. Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have also all been recently diagnosed with cancer.

“Would it be strange if they had developed the technology to induce cancer and nobody knew about it?” Chavez asked, in a televised address to Venezuelan troops on Wednesday that has been translated and widely reported on.

Chavez said that he was thinking out loud, adding that it is “very, very, very strange.”

His remarks quickly made waves in the blogasphere. One posting on a Daily Beast’s Facebook page asking if readers think Chavez’s assertion is possible, summed up the thrust of many comments.

“Of course very few of us will believe that cancer can be used as a weapon. A stupid idea at best. However, the intended audience for Chavez is the folks who elected Chavez. Currently the Venezuelans are experiencing a near catastrophic housing shortage yet the people living in shelters if not the street have full faith in Chavez’s promises of housing for all...” wrote Jaime Baldovinos.

The leftist Venezuelan president has made a number of brash comments in the past, calling ex-President George W. Bush the devil and calling President Barack Obama a clown. He has often accused the U.S. government of trying to overthrow him.

The Argentine government announced on Wednesday that Fernandez has cancer in her thyroid, a relatively benign form of the illness, and it has not spread to other parts of her body. She is set to receive an operation next month.