Onward, Commander! Chavez Is Determined To Win His Fight

“Onward, Commander” were the words conveyed to Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan President, now fighting cancer. Chavez has assured his full recovery.

Chavez said on television Tuesday that he is determined to “be victorious in this new battle that life has placed before us.”

He admitted his mistake of not taking better care of his health. “What a fundamental error,” he said.

Chavez said: “Now I want to speak to you from this steep hill, from which I feel that I’m coming out of another abyss.” “I want to speak to you now with the sun of daybreak that I feel is shining on me. I think we’ve achieved it.”

“I invite you all to continue climbing new summits together.” Concluding the speech, Chavez recited a revolutionary slogan often used by Castro: “Forever onward toward victory. We will be victorious.”

Chavez said that when he arrived in Cuba he had intended to have a simple checkup for a knee injury that had forced him to use a cane in recent weeks. But Castro had questioned him “like a doctor” and that tests confirmed the need for urgent surgery. After that initial operation, doctors began to suspect other problems, and Castro gave him the news of the tumor. Tests confirmed an abscessed tumor with the presence of cancerous cells making it necessary a second operation completely extracting the tumor.

After telecasting the speech by Chavez, Venezuelan vice president Elias Jaua said on television: “There is no time for sadness, but rather for courage and for work. Unity is what’s needed at this time.”

AP reports: “In videos released Wednesday, Chavez smiled and discussed with Castro Latin American history and his days as an army paratrooper. Two of Chavez’s daughters and a granddaughter joined in the encounter as the two men sat chatting.”

Andres Izarra, Venezuelan Information Minister, joked that a section of opponents, particularly those speculating about the health condition of Chavez were suffering from “Chavez abstinence syndrome”.

Chavez in his speech said: “Throughout my life I came to commit one of those errors that could easily fit perfectly in that category to which a philosopher called “fundamental errors” neglecting the health and also very reluctant to screening and treatment. No doubt what so fundamental mistake! Especially in a revolutionary with some modest responsibilities as the revolution came to me more than 30 years ago.”

In the speech he said that he was trying to ignore pain in his left knee for several weeks. But “Fidel, the man who has already exceeded all times and all places” identified the pain and questioned “almost like a doctor”, and Chavez “confessed almost like a patient, and that night all the immense medical breakthrough that the Cuban Revolution has achieved for his people, and much of the world, was put in our readiness, initiating a series examinations, diagnoses.”

“Thus was found a strange formation in the pelvic area that required emergency surgery at the imminent risk of a generalized infection”, he said.

“An operation was done. Another series of special studies confirmed the existence of a tumor abscess with presence of cancer cells, which made it necessary to perform a second surgical procedure that allowed complete removal of the tumor. It was a major intervention, performed without complications, after which I continued to recover successfully, while receiving complementary therapies to combat the various types of cells found and continue on the path of my full recovery.”

He called upon his beloved people:
“I invite you to stay together to scale new heights, there on the hill and sing a beautiful song for us from eternity”

Chavez concluded his speech with:
Gracias pueblo mío! Thank you my people!
Hasta la victoria siempre! To victory!
Nosotros venceremos! We win!

His speech mentioned the following dateline:
Havana, a beloved and heroic Havana,
June 30, 2011.

Chavez added:
For now and forever we will live and win!
Hasta el retorno! To return!