Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez said he may become bald as he begins a second round of cancer treatment in Cuba.
Chavez said chemotherapy may make him lose his hair “for a few months” and that he’ll end up looking like the Russian-born Hollywood actor Yul Brynner, star of movies from the 1950s through 1970s such as “The King and I” and “The Ten Commandments.”
“In a few days you will surely see Chavez bald,” the former paratrooper said in a phone call broadcast on state television yesterday. “Do you remember Yul Brynner? I’ll be Yul Chavez.”
Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a baseball-sized tumor discovered by doctors during a June 11 operation on an abscess. The socialist returned from a second trip to Cuba on July 23, saying tests hadn’t shown any signs of more cancerous cells and that he would need further treatment.
Chavez, 56, said he was subjected to “intense studies” and received several sessions of chemotherapy throughout the week.
The body is the seat of life, one has to take care of it from the hair to the fingernails, without exaggerating of course,” Chavez said in good spirits. While being filmed he spent much of the time telling stories about his life as a cadet.
The president also stressed the importance of OPEC’s confirmation this week that Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves of any nation in the world with almost 300 billion barrels.
“It’s important that the Venezuelan people understand that thanks to the great efforts of our petroleum industry...the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has just acknowledged the great petroleum reserve of the Orinoco Belt,” Chavez said.
The video footage was aired hours after Chavez announced in a statement over the phone Friday to Venezuelan state television that “the first bombardment” of chemotherapy “ended successfully” and that the cancer is not terminal.
“I want to tell you that, because I see there are still people saying...Yesterday someone wrote, giving me four months to live. Those out there who have bad wishes, may they not be on the receiving end of them,” he said.
At the meeting on video, Chavez is seen with Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Science and Technology Minister Ricardo Mendez, along with the vice presidents of the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., Eulogio Del Pino and Asdrubal Chavez.
Also on Saturday, Chavez thanked Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona for his visit to Havana.
“I give thanks to Diego Armando Maradona for his brotherly visit this afternoon. We were with Fidel. Thanks Pibe! We will live!” Chavez wrote on his Twitter account @chavezcandanga.
Maradona, an acknowledged “Chavista” who visited the president several times in Venezuela, has been following the progress of president’s treatment, according to comments from Chavez himself and his foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro.
The 56-year-old socialist president complained of abdominal pain during an official visit to Cuba early last month. Emergency surgery to remove an abscess led to the discovery of a cancerous tumor that was excised in a subsequent operation, also in Havana.
He returned to Venezuela on July 4 and made several public appearances before leaving again for Cuba last weekend to begin chemotherapy.
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