Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is questioning if the U.S. has developed a way to give Latin American leaders cancer, MSNBC is reporting. After Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez joined the list of Latin American presidents who have been diagnosed with the disease, Venezuela’s socialist leader said “it would not be strange if they had developed the technology to induce cancer and nobody knew about it until now.”
Chavez, who made the statement in a televised speech to troops at a military base, added that he wasn’t making any accusations, but was just “thinking aloud.” He added “it’s a bit difficult to explain this, to reason it, including using the law of probabilities.”
The 57-year-old Venezuelan leader is on the list of Latin American leaders who have been stricken with cancer. In June 2011, he underwent surgery to have a tumor removed from his pelvis. Along with Fernandez, Chavez also joins Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who have all been diagnosed with cancer recently. Chavez also said that other regional leaders should be aware of the US, including his close ally, Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Chavez is also one of Latin America’s harshest critics of U.S. foreign policy. Along with his cancer allegation, he condemned Washington, D.C. and its European allies for criticizing Russia’s recent parliamentary elections. He said he was planing on using the same electoral process in Venezuela’s 2012 presidential election, 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,” he said.
Written by: Karen Benardello
