By IANS/EFE,
Havana : Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was back in Cuba Saturday having medical examinations in preparation for an operation on a “lesion”, possibly malignant, in the same place a cancerous tumor was removed a little more than a eight months ago.
Cuban President Raul Castro went to Jose Marti International Airport in Havana to meet Chavez, who flew in with his daughters Rosa Maria and Rosines, his brother and governor of Barinas state Adan Chavez, and his Health Minister Eugenia Sader, among others.
Hugo Chavez, 57, is facing his third operation after having an emergency surgery in June 2011 for a “pelvic abcess”, and another several days later, also in Cuba, when he returned to hospital to have a malignant tumour in the same place removed.
Since then the Venezuelan president has flown five more times to the island for chemotherapy or medical exams.
In the last of those checkups a week ago, a 2-cm “lesion”, as Chavez calls it, was detected in the same place where he was operated previously, with a high probability of its being malignant.
Before his next operation, to be performed next Monday or Tuesday, the Venezuelan president was to undergo pre-op medical exams Saturday, Chavez said upon his arrival in Havana.
During his stay on the island, the Venezuelan Minister Eugenia Sader will act as spokeswoman for Chavez to relate the details of his treatment and his operation as they occur.
“I have faith that everything will turn out well, I’m full of faith, love and hope, and I’m certain we’re going to defeat this adversity as we have defeated, as we have conquered, many others,” Chavez said on Venezuelan television when he arrived in Havana.