{"id":21431,"date":"2012-07-10T11:58:54","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T08:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=21431"},"modified":"2012-07-10T11:58:54","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T08:58:54","slug":"hugo-chavez-declares-himself-cancer-free-21431","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/hugo-chavez-declares-himself-cancer-free-21431\/","title":{"rendered":"Hugo Chavez declares himself &#8216;cancer free&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/hugo-chavez.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-21448\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/hugo-chavez-e1341910682199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"343\" \/><\/a><\/h1>\n<h1>Hugo Chavez, the Firebrand Venezuelan President, insisted on Monday that he is &#8220;totally&#8221; cancer free and ready to take on what promises to be a tough re-election battle without &#8220;physical restrictions.&#8221;<\/h1>\n<p>&#8220;Free, totally free,&#8221; he replied when asked by a reporter if he had beaten the disease, as he gears up for the bruising campaign against unified opposition rival Henrique Capriles ahead of the October 7 vote.<br \/>\n&#8220;Thanks to God, I am here and every day I feel in better physical condition, and I really don&#8217;t think this expression &#8216;physical restrictions&#8217;&#8230; will be a factor in the campaign,&#8221; he told a news conference.<br \/>\nA little more than a year after revealing his cancer diagnosis, Chavez said he had worked &#8220;with a lot of discipline&#8221; in order to overcome the disease, adding that his last radiation treatment was two months ago.<br \/>\nChavez has undergone surgery twice since June 2011 to remove cancerous tumors from his pelvis. The exact location and nature of the cancer has never been revealed.<br \/>\nThe 57-year-old Venezuelan leader once before boasted that he had fully recovered only to have to admit later that he had suffered a recurrence of the disease and would again seek treatment in Cuba.<\/p>\n<h2>Chavez has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation therapy in Havana following his surgeries.<\/h2>\n<p>The leftist firebrand and frequent critic of the United States has nevertheless pledged victory in his October 7 election showdown with Capriles, the youthful former governor of Miranda state.<br \/>\n&#8220;Of course, I am not the same Chavez I was at age 40,&#8221; he said, adding he would celebrate his 58th birthday on July 28.<br \/>\nMost opinion polls put Chavez firmly in the lead, but Capriles is counting on undecided voters &#8211; estimated to be 35 percent of the electorate.<br \/>\nCapriles has claimed he will handily defeat Chavez, even predicting a 10-point margin of victory. He has vowed to tackle what he calls the country&#8217;s three main problems &#8211; poverty, unemployment and violence.<br \/>\nChavez, who has been in power since 1999, is facing his first serious election challenge as he vies for a new term that would cement his legacy both at home and abroad as Latin America&#8217;s leading leftist.<br \/>\nChavez could rack up 20 years in office if he is re-elected in October and serves out his full term.<br \/>\nVenezuela&#8217;s sometimes fractious opposition has united behind Capriles, a center-leftist who says he admires Brazil&#8217;s model of addressing poverty while fostering liberal economic development.<br \/>\nChavez has scaled back his public appearances in recent months but led a mass rally on July 1 marking the official start of his re-election campaign.<br \/>\n&#8220;I would like to first thank Christ the Redeemer for allowing me to get through this difficult year and be with the Venezuelan people to start this battle,&#8221; he said in a fiery 90-minute speech.<\/p>\n<span style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #f00;\">Error, group does not exist! 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