ICYMI: Cancer and the Body Politic
Cancer and the body politic: Before voting this year, Venezuelans have a right to know the state of Hugo Chávez’s health
The Economist
January 7, 2012
Even by the standards of one of the world’s great conspiracy theorists, it was wacky stuff. On hearing the news that Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez had become the fifth left-of-centre Latin American leader to be diagnosed with cancer in the past three years, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, himself unlucky enough to be one of them, mused that the United States might have developed technology to “induce cancer” in its political foes. “I don’t want to make any reckless accusation,” Mr Chávez said disingenuously, “but it’s very, very, very strange.”
This could be just another piece of self-evident nonsense from Mr Chávez. After all, several of the other stricken leaders have friendly relations with the United States and the health scares have thus far increased the popularity of both Mr Chávez and Ms Fernández: Latin American politics has featured a maudlin streak ever since the early death (yes, from cancer) of Eva Perón. But Mr Chávez may have been putting up a smokescreen. The recent cancer cases offer not just stories of personal suffering but also a striking contrast in the way that the leaders affected have handled the news about their health.
Four have been exemplary in releasing timely information about their condition, overcoming the human instinct for secrecy in such matters. Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 2009 on the eve of the campaign in which she was elected. Paraguay’s president, Fernando Lugo, was equally open when treated for the same illness. In October, when Ms Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was diagnosed with throat cancer, he made a point of ordering his doctor to release full details of his condition to the press. Ms Fernandez, who this week underwent surgery for thyroid cancer, has behaved similarly.
The odd one out is Mr Chávez. He has said that he had an operation in Cuba in June to remove a lump from his pelvic area; he insists that, after four sessions of chemotherapy, he has been cured. But he refuses to reveal what kind of cancer he had, nor have any of his doctors appeared in public to offer a prognosis. The obvious inference is that the problem may be more serious than he is letting on. Some foreign intelligence sources suggest that Mr Chávez has an untreatable sarcoma.