Sick Hugo Chavez Prays "Do not take me yet"

(Caracas, Venezuela) On Wednesday, El Presidente Hugo Chavez was feeling chipper after returning from Cuba where he received a second series of radiation treatments for his cancer.

The radiation treatments have caused no ill effects, the 57-year-old president said after disembarking from his official aircraft.

“The body has assimilated it well” and all of the medical tests show his recovery is progressing, Chavez said in remarks broadcast live on all television and radio networks.

However, another report alleges that the Cuban doctors zapped Chavez in the wrong place resulting in radiation burns on his intestines. Consequently, rumors have surfaced saying Chavez will now seek treatment in Brazil.

Meanwhile, there's this.

A tearful Hugo Chávez has prayed for God to spare his life as he attended a pre-Easter mass on returning from cancer treatment in Cuba.

The Venezuelan president wept in a televised speech from the Catholic service in his home state of Barinas. Chávez cried and his voice broke as he eulogised Jesus, the revolutionary fighter Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

"Give me your crown, Jesus. Give me your cross, your thorns so that I may bleed. But give me life, because I have more to do for this country and these people. Do not take me yet," Chávez said, standing below an image of Jesus with the Crucifix.

Chávez said he had held faith that his cancer would not return after his first two operations last year – which removed a baseball sized tumour from his pelvis – but it did.

Chavez's condition seems much more serious than is generally reported.