Hugo Chavez the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flew into Cuba to commence the treatment of cancer, leaving Venezuelans worried about his exact condition.

In a letter from the president to the Venezuelans after weeks of scare public appearances, he announced that he was going to Havana for a therapy known as “Hyperbaric Oxygenation”- a method used to reduce bone decay caused by radiation therapy.

Venezuelans, have been endlessly speculating about Chavez’s cancer since it was discovered in mid-2011, were not sure what to make of the latest twist – debating whether it was normal post-radiation treatment or a serious downturn.

“I really don’t know what he has,” Chavez’s cousin, Guillermo Frias, told Reuters from the president’s rural hometown state Barinas. “But anyway, I always pray for him every night. I stop at a shrine on the corner and always remember him.

“I hope he recovers fine. I’m sure he will. The election campaign was tough for him. He went too far”.

Though he had declared himself cured, Chavez appeared exhausted at the end of his successful presidential re-election bid in October. He later admitted radiation had taken its toll.