Doctors at a Wahington hospital say Bolivian President Hugo Banzar is critical but stable.

9 лет назад

379 Просмотров

(9 Jul 2001)

1. Various exteriors of Walter Reed Army Medical Centre
2. Interior of doctors briefing press
3. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Lawrence Lepler, Doctor:
"He is a very strong man. His mind is strong and, I think he could get through whatever it may be. He is thinking clearly, the medicine he is taking is not effecting his decision making."
4. Cutaway
5. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Lawrence Lepler, Doctor:
"We must repeat the treatment in 21 days. The first will begin in the coming days, and later the second treatment will begin 21 days after the first."
6. Foreign minister arriving at airport
7. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Javier Murillo de la Rocha, Bolivian Foreign Minister:
"I am going to make myself available to the president for any type of consultation and to keep myself in contact with him and the Bolivian authorities."
8. Cutaway
9. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Javier Murillo de la Rocha, Bolivian Foreign Minister:
"What we're going to do in the next few days, before congress, is request an extension on the president's stay overseas."

File
10. President Banzer with Colin Powell
11. Shot Banzer waving

STORYLINE:

Bolivian President Hugo Banzer, suffering from lung and liver cancer, will begin a regimen of chemotherapy treatment on Monday, his doctors said on Sunday.

Dr. Lawrence Lepler told reporters at an evening news conference at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, USA, there is a definite possibility that the cancer can go into recession.

Banzer, who is 75, was described by his doctors as alert and in good spirits.

The president met with several Bolivian government ministers and conducted official business on Sunday.

Following up on Monday's initial chemotherapy treatment, a second chemotherapy treatment will be administered in 21 days.

Dr. Carl Willis said that Banzer, whose term of office expires in August of 2002, has been tolerating his treatment very well.

The president was admitted to Walter Reed on July 1st.

The doctors did not elaborate on the kind of treatment he has been receiving up to now.

The doctors declined to speculate on his abilities to carry out officials duties once the chemotherapy begins.

They said that largely will be a political decision for Banzer and other Bolivian government officials to make.

Bolivia's foreign minister, Javier Murillo de la Rocha, said earlier on Sunday that government officials are not now discussing a successor to Banzer, whose condition was described as "grave" on Saturday by Information Minister Manfredo Kempff.

Next in the line of presidential succession as outlined in the Bolivian Constitution is Vice President Jorge Quiroga, who serves as acting president whenever Banzer is out of the country.

On Saturday, Kempff said on Bolivia's national television station that Banzer is "sufficiently responsible and patriotic to make the decision that is to come" and that officials were watching to see how he responds to treatment.

The Bolivian government had said earlier that Banzer was being treated for a tumor in his left lung, but Kempff's remarks on Saturday were the first confirmation of widespread reports that the president had cancer.

Major newspapers in La Paz speculated on Sunday that the resignation of Banzer seems imminent, and that the ensuing rise to power of Quiroga could provoke clashes within their political party, Democratic Nationalist Action (ADN).

anonymity.

Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/

You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/8ced580976c1cc5c5571f67af5c500d2

Тэги: