Chavez denies getting medical checkup in Brazil

Caracas, Aug 3 (IANS/EFE) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been battling cancer since June 2011, said he feels fine and denied rumours that he submitted to a medical checkup during his just-completed official visit to Brazil.

"I feel very well. I know that some, I think the mentally sick, and also with a certain sadism, take advantage of anything ... and OK it will continue being like this, any opportunity to continue sending their messages," said Chavez at a press conference upon his return from Brazil, where he attended the ceremony for Venezuela's entry as a full partner into the Mercosur trade bloc.

"It's absurd and totally false that they took me ... to a hospital and, I don't know, well it's a complete tale, like a movie," said the leftist president.

"I don't like to even respond because I don't want to fall to that level of, how can I call it, human wretchedness," he said.

"To those who wish death upon me, I wish a long life for them so that they see how the Bolivarian revolution is going to continue advancing from battle to battle and victory to victory," he added.

Venezuelan journalist Nelson Bocaranda said on his web page that Chavez Monday had undergone a medical exam in Brasilia accompanied by former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva.

Chavez, however, said he spoke by telephone with Lula before leaving Brazil since there was no opportunity to see him during his two-day visit.

The Venezuelan leader is recovering from cancer and says he has overcome it, although treating it required that he undergo surgery three times since it was detected in June 2011.

Chavez has said that he had a tumour in his pelvic region and that he had a relapse in February, but he has neither specified the type of cancer nor the seriousness of the disease.

Some 18.9 million Venezuelans are eligible to go to the polls Oct 7, when they will elect a president for 2013-19 from among a group of seven candidates. The 57-year-old Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, is ahead in the voter surveys with his nearest rival being consensus opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, 39.

--IANS/EFE

rd