Epress.am News from Armenia
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has been fighting cancer, was rushed to a military hospital for emergency care following kidney failure, according to El Nuevo Herald newspaper, AFP reports.
Chavez went into the Military Hospital in Caracas on Tuesday morning, the report on the newspaper’s website said, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the case.
“He was in fairly serious overall condition,” one of the sources told the Miami-based Spanish-language daily. “When he arrived, he was in quite serious shape and that is why he was brought in for emergency care.”
Venezuela’s Information Minister Andres Izarra appeared to deny the report in a posting on the micro-blogging website Twitter.
“Those who should be admitted are the journalists of the Nuevo Herald, except into a madhouse (instead of a hospital),” Izarra tweeted, without providing further details.
On Sunday, Chavez sought to assure Venezuelans he was healthy, telling them that cancer-fighting chemotherapy treatment has not left him with any debilitating side effects.
Chavez returned to Venezuela late last Thursday following what he described as a fourth and hopefully final round of chemotherapy in Cuba.
Chavez, 57, had a cancerous tumor removed on June 20 in Havana, but officials have provided little information about the nature of the disease.
Officials have said the tumor was removed from his “pelvic area,” but have given no indication of the severity of his condition.
After returning to Caracas and giving a brief statement early Friday, he stayed uncharacteristically out of the media spotlight and sent no messages on his Twitter feed, which has more than two million followers.