<p> Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has questioned whether the United States could be giving cancer to Latin American leaders, after Argentina's Cristina Kirchner was diagnosed with the disease.<br /><br />"Would it be that strange if they had developed technology to induce cancer without anyone knowing about it?" Chavez asked, without offering any evidence that such technology existed.<br /><br />He made the allegation against his arch-foe in a speech in which he also expressed his "solidarity" with Kirchner, whose spokesman said Tuesday she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and would undergo surgery next week.<br /><br />"It's very difficult to explain at this point," Chavez said at a ceremony for national armed forces broadcast by state media.<br /><br />Even "with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some of us in Latin America... it's strange, very strange," he said.<br /><br />Kirchner said earlier Wednesday that Chavez, who has himself waged a successful battle against cancer, was the first regional leader to call her to offer support.<br /><br />Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Paraguay's Fernando Lugo have all been diagnosed with cancer in recent years.<br /><br />Rousseff and Lugo say they are cancer-free. Lula is undergoing treatment</p>
<p> Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has questioned whether the United States could be giving cancer to Latin American leaders, after Argentina's Cristina Kirchner was diagnosed with the disease.<br /><br />"Would it be that strange if they had developed technology to induce cancer without anyone knowing about it?" Chavez asked, without offering any evidence that such technology existed.<br /><br />He made the allegation against his arch-foe in a speech in which he also expressed his "solidarity" with Kirchner, whose spokesman said Tuesday she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and would undergo surgery next week.<br /><br />"It's very difficult to explain at this point," Chavez said at a ceremony for national armed forces broadcast by state media.<br /><br />Even "with the law of probabilities, what has been happening to some of us in Latin America... it's strange, very strange," he said.<br /><br />Kirchner said earlier Wednesday that Chavez, who has himself waged a successful battle against cancer, was the first regional leader to call her to offer support.<br /><br />Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Paraguay's Fernando Lugo have all been diagnosed with cancer in recent years.<br /><br />Rousseff and Lugo say they are cancer-free. Lula is undergoing treatment</p>