Chavez: I've Beaten Cancer

Hugo Chavez says he has beaten cancer—and got religion. The Venezuelan president, after returning from a brief checkup in Cuba, told reporters that "the exams revealed that there is no sign of active malignant cells in this body," reports the New York Times. “I’m more Christian every day,” he said as he prepared to visit a Catholic shrine in western Venezuala. “Socialism is the road to Christ.”

Chavez, who shocked Venezuala earlier this year when he announced that he had had a cancerous tumor removed, said he plans to step up campaigning for next year's election. "It will be easier for a donkey to walk through the eye of a needle than for the opposition to beat Chavez in the elections,” he said. The 57-year-old leader, who had three chemotherapy treatments in Cuba and one in Venezuela, has not revealed what kind of cancer he had. (More Hugo Chavez cancer stories.)