BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is active and handling business after surgery to remove a cancerous prostate, his medical team said on Thursday.
At a critical time in his presidency when Santos is about to start peace negotiations with Marxist rebels, the 61-year-old shocked the Andean country this week, announcing he would have prostate cancer surgery.
The operation on Wednesday was successful, according to his doctors, and post-surgery recovery was going well, they said.
"He continues to present a satisfactory evolution ... He is active with stable vitals signs and no complications," Adolfo Llinas, the director of Fundacion Santa Fe hospital, told reporters.
Santos' treatment will not require chemotherapy, his doctors have said, and he will likely spend two to three days in the hospital.
"He is moving and he is handling his personal and family business, so if we continue this way, as it seems, we would be where we expected postoperatively," said Felipe Gomez, Santos' urologist.
The cancer surgery came days before the government was to begin negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Marxist-inspired insurgency that has killed tens of thousands over 50 years.
Norway's government confirmed on Thursday that representatives from Colombia's government and the FARC will hold a joint news conference in Oslo on October 17 after beginning peace talks earlier in the same week.
The talks are expected to move to Cuba a week later.
(Reporting by Jack Kimball; Editing by Vicki Allen)
