Enrique Peña Nieto Will Have a Thyroid Nodule Removed

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto will have to go through surgery to remove a thyroid nodule, his office announced last Wednesday, according to Latin Times. The procedure is scheduled for July 31 at the Central Military Hospital in Mexico City, and it will require a further four-day stay at Los Pinos, Mexico's presidental building, for recovery.

The gland located below the voicebox typically regulates metabolism. The nodules in that region could be cancerous, though not necessarily. They are sometimes removed due to discomfort or excessive growth.

The president has diminished the importance of the surgery by explaining that the thyroid nodule had been found on him by the doctor eight years ago. According to ElDiario.mx, he said that it was due to his political activities that he hadn't had found the time to undergo through surgery before.

He also stated he is feeling well and that the nodule hasn't caused him any annoyance, but the doctor said it is time it should be removed. "I feel very good, it is a surgery of something that was detected on me a lot of years ago, and has been diagnosed, but obviously I hadn't had the chance. I've been postponing it, and now I think I've found the right moment, and the advice from the doctor of doing it," he said during an interview on the presidental plane.

He continued, "I don't feel it, only when a doctor does the auscultation. It is a little cyst that I have in the thyroid, and the truth is, I don't feel it. It's been detected on me for a lot of years, I was going to have it removed like 7 or 8 years ago."

The president also made clear that during his absence, it wouldn't be necessary to name someone on his place. "It would be like naming someone (to replace me) on the nights, when I go to sleep," he claimed. However, he pointed out that if anything needed to be treated urgently, Interior Secretary Miguel ángel Osorio Chong, would be in charge.

While the president will be taking some days off due to his heatlh issues, violent clashes in the Mexican state of Michoacán have been intensifying in the past few days. Twenty-two people died last Tuesday in fightings between the Knights Templar drug cartel and federal police, reported CBC News. On Monday, five people were killed when gunmen opened fire on a group of community self-defence members gathered on a plaza in the Michoacan town of Los Reyes.