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Hugo Chávez has cancer.
For nearly a month, rumors have been circling about the Venezuelan president’s health. But his mysterious sojourn to Havana became a little less murky Thursday night when a noticeably thinner Chávez announced in a live broadcast from Cuba that his doctors had removed a cancerous tumor.
Chávez, who swept to power in the oil rich country twelve years ago, did not elaborate on his illness other than to promise that he would recover.
Click through for video of his speech.
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In the speech, Chávez says that “suspicions” arose during a June 11 operation to drain and treat a pelvic abscess.
Tests “confirmed the existence of an abscessed tumor with the presence of cancerous cells, which required a second surgical operation that permitted the complete extraction of said tumor.”
“It was a major operation completed without complications,” he added.
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