Bolivian president suffering from lung, liver cancer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Bolivian President Hugo Bánzer Suarez is suffering from cancer in his lung and liver, Information Minister Manfredo Kempff told Bolivian Radio Saturday.

Kempff gave the interview from Washington, where Bánzer, 74, is being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Officials at the hospital and Bolivian embassy in the United States could not be reached for comment.

Bánzer overthrew the leftist Gen. Juan José Torres in 1971 and served as president until 1978. He was forced to resign that year following a coup by Gen. Juan Pereda Asbún, and was exiled to Argentina.

Bánzer returned the following year and ran for president, only to lose the election. Voters did re-elect him in 1997 as leader of the Nationalist Democratic Action Party (ADN).

His government has committed itself to shutting down illegal coca cultivation and drug trafficking during its five-year term. The president has called for action against government and judicial corruption and has encouraged foreign investment as a means to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty, according to the U.S. State Department.

- Journalist Gloria Carrasco in La Paz, Bolivia contributed to this report