Mexican president undergoes successful thyroid operation
MEXICO CITY — Doctors completed a successful operation on Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday, removing a thyroid nodule that proved to be benign.
Peña Nieto, 47, will spend two days recovering in a Mexico City military hospital and two more days recovering at Los Pinos, the Mexican White House, said Aurelio Nuño, chief of the president’s office.
“The surgery that was performed today on the president of the republic was successful,” Nuño said in a news conference.
The thyroid gland is in the neck, below the voice box. Among other things, it helps regulate metabolism. Operations to remove nodules are necessary when they are suspected or known to be cancerous. An operation may also be necessary if a nodule has grown too large or otherwise causes discomfort.
Peña Nieto, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, took office in December. He will have a host of issues keeping him busy after his recovery, including an effort to open the underperforming state oil company to private investment, and a fight against a ruthless cartel that controls swaths of Michoacan state.
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