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Venezuelan Pres to go to Cuba for full medical survey

“I must live to fulfill the obligations I gave to the people and to win the next presidential election”, Chavez said

CARACAS, October 11 (Itar-Tass) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has made public his plans to go to Cuba by the end of the week for a full medical survey there.

He said it during a telephone call to the studio of a local radio. He said the survey is necessary for determining the presence or absence of cancer cells in his organism.

Chavez, who is often called euphemistically ‘the leader of the Bolivarian revolution’, said the Cuban doctors will do the survey with the aid of the most advance scientific techniques.

This will be the fifth trip to Cuba for him. He had two surgeries there in June and then visited the country thrice for courses of chemotherapy.

“It’s an improper time for dying now,” Chavez said. “I must live to fulfill the obligations I gave to the people and to win the next presidential election.”

He was elected Venezuela’s President the first time in December 1998 in an election where he took part as a candidate nominated by Movimiento V Repulbica /the Fifth Republic Movement/.

Chavez got 56% votes then. In subsequent years, the Venezuelans adopted a new Constitution, and the early general elections were held in the light of it in July 2000.

Chavez won the election again getting 60% votes. This marked a big margin over his contender.

The next election took place in December 2006. Chavez ran in it as a candidate of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela that had been set up by that time.

He got 7 million votes /almost 63%/.

The election of 2012 will be the fourth one for Chavez and he plans winning it with no less than 60% votes. Considering the growth of the country’s population, this will mean 10 million votes in absolute terms versus the previous seven million.

The most recent opinion polls show Chavez enjoys popular support standing at a level of around 60%.

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