Chavez launches re-election bid

CARACAS: Thousands of supporters thronged the streets of Caracas late Monday to join cancer-stricken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he registered to seek reelection amid ongoing concerns about his health.
The president sought to play down any concerns he might seek to extend his long-ruling socialist government — which has nationalized strategic industries and heaped praise on Cuba's Communist model — should he lose at the polls.
"As a player in the political game, I have come here and I commit, before Venezuela and the world, to recognize the outcome of the presidential election" on October 7, said the 57-year-old Chavez. If he were to be re-elected and serve out his term through 2019, Chavez would end up spending 20 years in office.
The Venezuelan government has disclosed few details about Chavez's health, leading to intense speculation over the political future of Latin America's most prominent leftist leader.
In May, Chavez — a ferocious critic of the United States who has been in power since 1999 — sought treatment in Cuba, his closest regional ally, after a recurrence of the cancer which he first disclosed last year.
The president said Saturday that he feels "quite fit" after several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and he seems keen to quash any speculation that he might not be healthy enough to run again for office.
He saluted a sea of supporters wearing his party's signature red — many chanting "Ooh, Ah, Chavez is not leaving" — from the back of a pickup that took him from the presidential palace to the electoral board four blocks away.
"There will be 10, there will be 10, 10 million, there will be 10," marchers chanted in a reference to the 10 million votes by which the president has said he will win in October.