Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez has had to skip the Summit of the Americas. He announced on Friday that he would have to skip the meeting of 30 nations and return to Cuba to continue with cancer treatments. Of late, the treatments are forcing him more and more out of the international spotlight.
Nicolas Maduro the Foreign Minister for Venezuela is attending the Summit in place of Chavez in Cartagena, Colombia. He said that Chavez was told by doctors that it was best he not attend the summit. His decision to skip the summit headed off a possible confrontation face to face with U.S. President Barack Obama. It also raised concerns about how much of an effect his cancer could have on the future of his political career.
Often times, Chavez has used these summits as a way to criticize the influence the U.S. has in the region and to press for integration in Latin America, one of his many visions of uniting the region.
By not attending the summit, it will only fuel the thought that Chavez is seriously ill. Many say it would have been good for him politically to have attended. Maduro announced that Chavez was going through a careful and disciplined cancer treatment.
Saturday night Chavez was on local TV for a brief period as he waved to aides at the Caracas airport before climbing aboard the presidential jet to head to Havana for more radiation treatment.
