News

Argentina's president cracked jokes and sounded optimistic Wednesday after her thyroid cancer diagnosis was announced, but she's clearly struggling with the need to delegate power while she recovers from next week's surgery.

Cristina Fernandez's thyroid removal operation, scheduled for January 4th, is expected to be as routine as cancer surgery can be. Doctors predict a speedy recovery, since papillary thyroid carcinoma detected before it spreads is highly curable without chemotherapy.

The president praised her constitutional successor, but jokingly warned him to "be careful what you do'' as interim president and made clear that she'll be keeping a close watch on things while recovering at her home in Patagonia.

"The truth is that I - everything is too much. You can't be in charge of everything,'' Fernandez acknowledged. "The body can't handle it.''

Even before the death of her husband, Nestor Kirchner, of a heart attack last year, Fernandez had grown accustomed to ruling through emergency decrees after consulting only a small circle of loyal advisers.

Fernandez and Kirchner were Argentina's ultimate power couple, whose fervent supporters say they've done more for the country during their combined two terms in office than anyone since legendary strongman Juan Domingo Peron and his wife, Evita, used the country's post-World War II riches to move a generation of working people into the middle class.

Fernandez, 58, dispelled doubts about her survival skills after Kirchner's death and won re-election by a landslide in October, in part because voters saw the grieving widow as indomitable.

Fernandez spoke of her cancer diagnosis as she announced new revenue transfers to provincial governments, seeking to project an image of normalcy. Several of the gathered governors and ministers who gave her an extended standing ovation said they were relieved to see her in good spirits and fully in command.

"She seems optimistic, making jokes. Clearly she's not going to let anything slow her down these next four years,'' said Jorge Capitanich, governor of the northern state of Chaco.