CARACAS, (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez returned from Cuba today following cancer-related medical treatment, walking and joking at the airport in a first public appearance in three weeks that quashed rumors he might have been at death’s door.
“I’m happy and enthused to be back again,” Chavez said after a typically theatrical surprise return before dawn.
“So, where’s the party?” Chavez asked, in festive mood as he chatted with Cabinet ministers after walking unaided down the steps from his plane at the international airport outside Caracas.
The 58-year-old socialist leader went to Havana ten days ago to receive “hyperbaric oxygenation” – a treatment normally used to alleviate bone decay from radiation therapy.
But speculation was rife he may have suffered a recurrence of the cancer that has afflicted him twice since mid-2011. One local journalist had said he was confined to a wheelchair.
Earlier this year, Chavez declared himself “completely cured.” Officials had maintained his latest trip to Cuba was just a scheduled follow-up to the radiation therapy he underwent in the first half of 2012.
Supporters were jubilant at the return of Chavez, who won re-election in October and is due to start a new six-year term on Jan. 10.
“YEEESSSS!!!!, “tweeted Eva Golinger, an American-Venezuelan lawyer close to the Chavez government.
“Chavez is back and has shown up all the rumor-mongers, necrophiliacs, gossips and ill-thinkers. Welcome commander.”
Today, Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper showed President Raul Castro bidding farewell to Chavez at Havana airport.
A photograph showed Chavez, looking plump and wearing a multi-colored track suit, speaking and gesturing with his hand as Castro, in his green military uniform, looked on.
