Venezuela’s Chavez: did US give Latin American leaders cancer?

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo  Chavez speculated today that the United States might have  developed a way to give Latin American leaders cancer, after  Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez joined the list of presidents  diagnosed with the disease.
It was a typically controversial statement by Venezuela’s   socialist leader, who underwent surgery in June to remove a  tumor from his pelvis. But he stressed that he was not making  any accusations, just thinking aloud.
“It would not be strange if they had developed the  technology to induce cancer and nobody knew about it until now  … I don’t know. I’m just reflecting,” he said in a televised  speech to troops at a military base.
“But this is very, very, very strange … it’s a bit  difficult to explain this, to reason it, including using the law  of probabilities.”
Chavez, Fernandez, Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo, Brazil’s Dilma  Rousseff and former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva  have all been diagnosed recently with cancer. All of them are  leftists.
Doctors say Fernandez has a very good chance of recovery and  will not need chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Her diagnosis was  made public yesterday.
Chavez said other regional leaders should beware, including  his close ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales.
“We’ll have to take good care of Evo. Take care Evo!” he  said.
The 57-year-old is Latin America’s loudest critic of U.S.  foreign policy along with Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro, and  he frequently lashes out at what he calls the “Yankee Empire”.

CASTRO’S WARNING
“Fidel always told me, ‘Chavez take care. These people have  developed technology. You are very careless. Take care what you  eat, what they give you to eat … a little needle and they  inject you with I don’t know what,'” he said.
In his comments today, Chavez also slammed Washington  and its European allies for criticizing Russia’s recent  parliamentary elections – and said they were planning the same  thing for Venezuela’s presidential election in October, when he  will seek re-election.
“They are crying fraud and saying the elections need to be  re-run … They’re trying to destabilize no less than Russia, a  nuclear power. That’s the madness of the Empire,” Chavez said.
“I say this because here in Venezuela, the Imperial Yankee,  the local bourgeoisie, and a good part of what they call the  opposition parties here, are preparing a similar plan,” he said.
“I call on the armed forces to be alert, on the Venezuelan  people to be alert. Because we are not going to let the Imperial  Yankee destabilize Venezuela again like they did in the past.”
Details about Chavez’s health remain a closely guarded  secret, although he now appears to be recovering and is making  longer and longer televised appearances.
Earlier this month he made his first official foreign trip  after his surgery, to a regional summit in Uruguay.
Since his return he has often appeared sporting something of  a younger, new look: a dark sports coat over an open-necked  maroon shirt, and his hair is growing back after chemotherapy.
It is far cry from the green fatigues and red beret that he  became famous for wearing for much of his 13 years in power.