ARGENTINA: President Cristina Fernandez thanks regional leaders and Argentines for their support in first appearance since her thyroid cancer was made public

Record ID: 446773

  • Title: ARGENTINA: President Cristina Fernandez thanks regional leaders and Argentines for their support in first appearance since her thyroid cancer was made public
  • Date: 29th December 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPERS AT NEWSSTAND NEWSPAPER HEADLINE READING, 'PRESIDENT WILL BE OPERATED ON FOR THYROID CANCER' INTERIOR OF CAFÉ MAN SITTING AT TABLE AT CAFÉ READING NEWSPAPER CLOSE-UP OF MAN SITTING AT CAFÉ CLOSE-UP OF NEWSPAPER WITH HEADLINE READING, 'PRESIDENT WILL BE OPERATED ON FOR THYROID CANCER'
  • Embargoed: 13th January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina, Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Health,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA3PQ1LOKQNMUMDTGBJ12XYV33S
  • Story Text: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, who will have cancer surgery next week, thanked regional leaders and Argentines for their support on Wednesday (December 28) in her first appearance since her illness was made public.
    Fifty-eight year old Fernandez has a papillary carcinoma, the most common form of thyroid cancer, and there is no sign the disease has spread.
    Doctors say she has a very high chance of recovery and will not need chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The diagnosis was made public on Tuesday (December 27).
    The news was the front cover of almost every daily on Wednesday and residents in capital Buenos Aires told Reuters they are hoping their leader has a quick and full recovery.
    "The best thing for her, obviously, for our president. It doesn't matter what side of the political spectrum I am, that she gets well soon," said one resident.
    Fernandez's cancer scare comes less than a month since she was sworn in for a second four-year term after winning a landslide re-election in October.
    The former senator also suffers low blood pressure, and some commentators suggested earlier this year that she might not run for re-election due to health concerns and pressure from her family following the death of her husband and predecessor Nestor Kirchner from a sudden heart attack.
    "This kind of illness can happen to anyone. I think it is very common and connected to the pressure that comes with being in power, and well, I hope she gets through it well and the operation goes well," said another resident.
    Her already high approval ratings could get a further boost from public sympathy over her illness as they did following Kirchner's death.
    "It is terrible. I had a cancer operation six months ago, so I know what she is going through. And I really don't know what to say. It's terrible that it happened. I hope she can get through it, like I would hope for anyone," said resident Nancy Alvarez.
    The operation is scheduled to take place at the Austral Hospital in suburban Pilar on January 4 and she is expected to take a leave of absence until January 24.
    The government has communicated that the papillary carcinoma has not metastasized, or spread.
    Oncologist and President of the Argentine Cancer Foundation, Luis R. Balbiani, said the survival rate for this type of cancer is very high, though he said more would be found out once she undergoes the operation.
    "The microscope has the last word and the surgeon will have to remove the glands around the thyroid and send them to the pathologist and the pathologist will be able to say definitively if there is or is not metastasis around the glands in the area," Balbiani said.
    Fernandez is one of several regional leaders to have cancer including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who she calls a close friend.
    "First of all, I want to say thanks for the showing of solidarity and affection from all Argentines and also from my Presidential friends. You can imagine who was the first to call me last night. I finished work at ten and he was already calling me. And so I answered the phone at the residency and it was Hugo Chavez Frias, the first president to call me," Fernandez said on Wednesday.
    She reached out and thanked other regional leaders who have voiced their support ahead of her surgery.
    "He [Chavez] is proposing, along with [Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio] Lula [da Silva] a congress of those who have beaten cancer. And I told him, 'you, your congress and your session, let it be clear that I am going to fight with you and everyone else to be the honorary president.' So, I thank my dear friend, Hugo Chavez, and [Chilean President] Sebastian Pinera. Because just after Hugo called me Sebastian and his wife Cecilia called me with very affectionate words from this woman that I dearly care about and respect. I thank them both. [Colombian President] Juan Manuel Santos called yesterday late at night and I couldn't answer the phone, so I want to thank him now. And I will call him today. [Paraguayan President] Fernando Lugo called me this morning. [Brazilian President] Dilma [Rousseff] was at the beach and we couldn't get in touch, but we will speak later. So, I thank them all. I ask all the country's governors and mayors for their help, not for me, but for this country," Fernandez added.
    Chavez and Paraguay's Fernando Lugo both underwent chemotherapy recently while former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is currently being treated for throat cancer When Kirchner died, many thought it spelled the end of the couple's idiosyncratic blend of state intervention, nationalist rhetoric and the championing of human rights.
    But Fernandez's popularity rebounded on the back of a brisk expansion in Latin America's number three economy, public sympathy and the opposition's failure to mount a convincing challenge.
    Argentine financial markets took news of the president's cancer diagnosis calmly and the peso currency was virtually unchanged in late morning trade.
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