Chavez Completed the Second Phase of Radiotherapy in Cuba

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez returned shortly before midnight on Thursday to the capital of his home state of Barinas (southwest) after completing in La Habana the second course of radiotherapy to treat the cancer he has been suffering from last year.

“I’m still in recovery (…) today I completed the second cycle and so far there has been no adverse reaction,” said the president as he stepped off the presidential plane at 23H50 local time (04H20 GMT), according to images broadcast by all the television stations of the country.

On Tuesday, Chavez had a long telephone conversation with former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that called him to Havana, said a statement from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry. Lula, who recently announced his return to political life after “beating” cancer of the larynx was diagnosed last October, Chavez promised to visit him in Caracas “as soon as his doctors determined it”, the statement said. Lula told Chavez that his radiation treatment “is doing very well” and the two leaders welcomed the progress that both are getting, as quoted Caracas. (LO)