Chavez Suffers New Respiratory Infection

HAVANA TIMES – The health of Venezuelan President  Hugo Chavez continues to be “sensitive” because of a “new and severe” respiratory infection, the government said today.

Minister of Communication and Information, Ernesto Villegas said in a new statement that a “worsening of respiratory function” exists as the president receives his “severe impact” chemotherapy treatment, reported dpa news.

“Two weeks after returning to the Venezuelan homeland by choice, after surgery in Havana on December 11, there is, as of today, a worsening of respiratory function, related to the immunosuppressive state of his clinical situation. He now presents a new and severe infection,” states the message to the country.

“The general condition remains delicate. The president remains clinging to Christ and life, aware of the difficulties he is facing and in strict compliance with the program designed by his medical team.”

Villegas said the government in charge in the absence of Chavez continues to accompany the children and other relatives of the president in “this battle, full of love and spirituality.”

He urged the people to keep fighting the rumor campaign “made in foreign laboratories with loud speakers in the corrupt right-wingers of Venezuela who seek to generate violence as the pretext for foreign intervention.”

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on December 11 for the fourth time for the cancer found in the abdominal area.  Since then he has not had direct contact with the population.

The government has repeatedly said that due to respiratory failure Chavez requires a tracheal cannula for breathing and therefore communicates in writing.