Hugo Chávez at Mass

Having returned on April 4th from his second round of Cuban radiation therapy for cancer of an unspecified type, Venezuelan el Presidente Chávez

wept and asked God to spare his life during a pre-Easter Mass after returning from his latest session of cancer treatment in Cuba.

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He says the latest surgery was successful, that he is recovering well and will be fit to win a new six-year term at an election in October. Yet big questions remain about his future, and on Thursday the strain appeared to show.

In a televised speech to the Catholic service in his home state of Barinas Thursday, Chavez cried and his voice broke as he eulogized Jesus, revolutionary fighter Ernesto “Che” Guevara and South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

“Never forget that we are the children of giants … I could not avoid some tears,” the former soldier said, his parents and other relatives looking on from the church rows.

“Give me your crown, Jesus. Give me your cross, your thorns so that I may bleed. But give me life, because I have more to do to for this country and these people. Do not take me yet,” Chavez added, standing below an image of Jesus with the Crucifix.

Rumors have been circulating that

Chávez had to be hospitalized in the Center of Medical Surgical Research after suffering severe intestinal pain.

“I was able to confirm with people in Cuba that Chávez was not well and that he was hospitalized as an emergency at the Center because he had very severe abdominal pain,” Marquina said. That pain, according to Marquina, could have been provoked by the external burns caused by the radiation sessions.

The procedure may have also damaged the vascular microcirculation that nurtures the colon, Marquina said.