Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday he would undergo surgery for a non-aggressive prostate cancer in a health scare that seemed unlikely to derail his government’s imminent talks with Marxist rebels to end decades of war.
Santos, 61, said the tumour was discovered as part of a routine checkup and will be removed on Wednesday.
“It’s a small tumour located on the prostate gland and it’s a good prognosis. It’s not aggressive,” he said at the presidential palace in Bogota, flanked by his doctor and his wife. “There’s a 97 per cent chance of being totally cured.”
The Harvard-educated economist, who took office two years ago, is about to embark on negotiations in coming weeks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), whose insurgency has led to the deaths of tens of thousands in half a century.
A successful end to the peace negotiations would help secure Santos a place in history and allow him to further build on the economic and security advances that began under President Alvaro Uribe a decade ago.
Colombia, a nation of about 46 million, has attracted record foreign direct investment over the last few years as a US-backed military offensive against drug traffickers and Farc rebels improved business confidence.
