Chavez returns to Venezuela after Cuba cancer care

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned home to Caracas after undergoing another round of radiation treatment for cancer in Cuba, officials said early on Thursday.

Information Minister Andres Izarra announced Chavez's arrival on Twitter and posted a picture of the leftist leader on the runway wearing a track suit.

Chavez had earlier announced his return on the micro-blogging website, writing: "Everybody is feeling happy because we are headed to our beloved Venezuela. Fidel and Raul (Castro) send their greetings! Long live Venezuela."

Officials earlier this week had said this would be the last round of radiation for Chavez, but the president later said he would return to Cuba for yet another session.

The 57-year-old received his second cancer surgery February 26 after a recurrence in the same area of his pelvis where it was first detected in June 2011.

Chavez, who is running for a third six-year term in the October 7 election, has never publicly revealed the kind of cancer he suffers from or its exact location in his body.

The face of the international left in Latin America, Chavez is running as a "revolutionary" socialist against center-left opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, governor of the state of Miranda.

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