Lula renews offer for Chávez to receive treatment in Brazilian hospital

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva suggested the family of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez the possibility of receiving medical care in a hospital in Brazil, where Lula himself was treated for cancer.

According to newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, Lula presented the proposal once again last week in Havana, as he met with Chávez's daughter Rosa Virginia Chávez; her husband, Minister of Science and Technology Jorge Arreaza, and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elías Jaua.

"Lula da Silva again suggested that the Venezuelan president, hospitalized in Cuba since last December, considers treatment at the Syrian-Lebanese private hospital in Sao Paulo,"  reported the newspaper. Reference was made to the hospital where the former Brazilian president was treated for a laryngeal cancer last year.

Lula had already made the proposal in 2011.

Further, people close to the Venezuelan president told Lula that Chávez "deeply regretted" not to receive him, as requested by the Brazilian former president.

According to the newspaper, the Venezuelan delegation told Da Silva that Chávez had been very ill, but he is recovering day by day. They added that Chávez was not expected to leave Cuba in the coming days.

"They told the former president that Chávez is recovering well from the surgery that was performed in December," the Lula Institute reported last week in a press release including a photo of the former president with the Venezuelan delegation.