Duarte Reportedly Ill With Cancer, Plans U.S. Treatment

SAN SALVADOR —  President Jose Napoleon Duarte, serving the last year of his term in office, has cancer and could be terminally ill, a source close to the presidency said Monday.

Duarte, 62, is scheduled to travel today to the United States, where he will be hospitalized and may undergo an operation, presidential secretary Carmen Vallejo said.

Sources close to the president said earlier that Duarte may be treated at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington or the nearby Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Sources in Duarte’s ruling Christian Democratic Party said Monday that his son, Alejandro Duarte, will accompany his father to the United States.

Duarte held a Cabinet meeting Monday to inform his ministers of his health and to arrange the temporary transfer of the reins of power to Vice President Rodolfo Castillo Claramount, officials said.

Castillo, 52, was called back to El Salvador from an official trip to Taiwan and met with Duarte Sunday, they said.

The government has not officially commented on Duarte’s health except for a statement Friday by Communications and Information Minister Roberto Viera, who said the president was suffering from a bleeding gastrointestinal ulcer and would travel this week to the United States for treatment.

“It would be premature to say that the president is seriously ill, but he is in a delicate state of health,” Christian Democratic sources said Monday.

But the source close to the presidency, who asked not to be identified, said Monday a team of Salvadoran doctors diagnosed Duarte as suffering from cancer.

“The president’s state of health is very delicate and his doctors fear he could be terminally ill,” the source said.

Another presidential source who asked not to be identified said Duarte was seriously ill and probably would be absent from the presidency for more than a month. The source refused to specify the nature of his illness.

Duarte was scheduled to give a State of the Union address on Wednesday, but it will be delivered instead by Castillo, the source said.

Duarte also met Sunday with a council of bishops, including the archbishop of San Salvador, Arturo Rivera y Damas, as well as the chiefs of staff of the armed forces, officials said.