highlights:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pulled out of the Summit of the Americas yesterday for more cancer treatment, giving up a chance to confront U.S. President Barack Obama and signaling his health may be deteriorating.

The South American president, who is facing an election in October, was advised by his doctors not to go to the summit and travelled instead to Cuba for radiation therapy, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said on state T.V.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Daughter Rosa Virginia

Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez embraces his daughter Rosa Virginia, at a balcony of Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on April 13, 2012.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez embraces his daughter Rosa Virginia, at a balcony of Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on April 13, 2012. Photographer: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images

“This is the sort of event that Chavez normally thrives on, so cancelling is a clear indication of how serious his cancer is,” Greg Weeks, associate professor of political science and director of Latin American studies at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, wrote in an e-mail. “The summit would have given him a platform to criticize the U.S. on a number of issues such as Cuba and the Falklands/Malvinas, and that is not normally an opportunity he would miss.”

Chavez, 57, who returned to Caracas from Cuba on April 11 after completing the third of five planned radiation treatments, has no official succession plans in case his illness prevents him participating in the October election. Speaking at a Catholic Mass in his home state of Barinas on April 5, Chavez wiped tears from his face as he pleaded for life in his fight against cancer.

Nelson Bocaranda, a journalist who often reports on the president’s health in the absence of official statements, said yesterday on his website that doctors this month in Cuba discovered the cancer has started to affect Chavez’s liver and kidneys. Bocaranda revealed last June that Chavez had cancer five days before the self-declared socialist announced doctors in Cuba had removed a tumor from his pelvic area.

Chavez has declined to give details.

“In the past 340 days, from May, 2010 through April 8, the president has spent 200 days in recovery and 80 days in Cuba,” opposition lawmaker Carlos Berrizbeitia said in Congress. Yet, the president hasn’t given an official report on his health. “Venezuelans are learning about the president’s health from rumors,”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-14/chavez-skips-americas-summit-for-more-cancer-treatment-in-cuba.html