Venezuela's Chavez: did U.S. give Latin American leaders cancer?

[LeftishBrit]

51. Very unlikely IMO

Cancer rates have been generally increasing in Latin America over the last 20 years or so. It's not just the leaders! In Latin America, cancer is the 2nd commonest cause of death. The increase is thought to be due to a combination of (1) reduced childhood mortality, so more people reach the age where cancer is common; (2) high smoking rates; (3) fairly high rates of exposure to environmental pollutants, especially in the workplace.

Cancer takes a long time to develop, so exposing left-wing leaders to carcinogens would be a fairly ineffective way to kill them - and requires a lot of ability to predict who is likely to become a leader in 10 or 15 years, say.

So all quite improbable.

In general terms, being a political dissident (as several of these current leaders were) in Latin America under the juntas tended to lead to consequences, from poverty to torture, that are bad for current and future health; so it may indeed be that their risk of cancer was increased by a general earlier undermining of their health. Not specifically intended to give them cancer, however; and not directly inflicted by America.