MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who underwent a fourth cancer surgery in Cuba on Tuesday, is facing a “complex” recovery, Vice-President and Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said.
Chavez, 58, who has ruled Venezuela for 13 years, underwent three operations for cancer and four courses of chemotherapy in Cuba and Venezuela within a year. He said that recent tests had revealed malignant cells.
“It was a complex, difficult and delicate surgery, which means that the post-surgery recovery will be also complex and difficult,” Maduro said on air of the national radio and television.
Tuesday’s operation on Chavez in Havana lasted more than six hours. Maduro said that he will be keeping all Venezuelan people informed on the recovery process of the country’s leader.
Last Saturday Chavez publicly announced his planned surgery in Cuba and named Maduro as his possible successor.
Venezuelan doctor Jose Rafael Marquina, who is based in the United States and is known for his accurate prognoses on Chavez’s health, told RCN radio that the disease has entered an aggressive stage and Chavez has "between two and three months to live."
