Chavez heads to Cuba saying cancer is history
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - September 17, 2011
Supporters greeted Chavez with songs and a prayer outside the
presidential palace before he left for the airport along with
Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was accompanying him to the
island.
Chavez told the crowd that he is confident he is overcoming the
illness.
"I'm sure that this week we will close the cycle of
chemotherapy and we will be turning the page," he told supporters,
standing at the doors of the presidential palace.
"Chavez's cancer is now part of this history," he added,
likening it to the short-lived coup he survived in 2002.
Chavez waved to the crowd wearing the red beret and fatigues
from his years as an army paratroop commander.
Later, a military band played Venezuela's national anthem at the
airport as Chavez and Morales prepared to board their flight to
Havana.
Speaking earlier at the presidential palace, Chavez said he
expected to undergo medical tests in Havana on Saturday night and
then resume chemotherapy Sunday. He said he would return from Cuba
before next weekend.
Once the treatments are finished, he said, it will be "goodbye
to the threat of cancer, and then on to life."
"I will come out strengthened," Chavez said.
The 57-year-old leader referred to his 2012 re-election campaign
saying "the battle that lies ahead is hard."
He underwent surgery in Cuba in June to remove a tumor from his
pelvic region. Since then, he has undergone three rounds of
chemotherapy treatments, two of those in Cuba.
He has said that the treatment aims to prevent any cancerous
cells from reappearing and that tests have shown no signs of a
recurrence.
