HispanicBusiness

The Spanish daily El Pais on Thursday withdrew a picture of a man on a hospital bed, who had falsely been claimed to be Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The 58-year-old leftist nationalist leader has been undergoing cancer treatment in Cuba since December.

El Pais said on its website that the picture had been supplied by a press agency that claimed that the man was Chavez.

The blurry picture showed a bald man with tubes coming out of his mouth.

The daily published the picture while saying that it had been unable to check on the place and time when it was taken.

The photo remained on El Pais' website for half an hour before it was removed. The daily also stopped the distribution of its printed edition.

El Pais said it had found out the man was not Chavez. The daily apologized to its readers and said it was investigating the circumstances in which the photo was published.