CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended a week-long silence o n Friday to say he was resting, following a diet and trying to tame his workaholic ways as he recovers from cancer treatment.

The usually garrulous and attention-seeking Chavez’s disappearances from public view have become longer and more frequent this year. That has fueled speculation his condition has worsened and may complicate a re-election bid in October.

Allies in the ruling Socialist Party say the 57-year-old leader remains on top of government affairs and is not mulling a succession. Chavez said he was working less than before his illness, but still about eight hours a day.

“Unfortunately, I can’t carry on being the wild horse I was. I will rest and get well again,” he said during the roughly 90-minute ph one call, speaking in a firm voice an d twice breaking into song.

“I didn’t used to sleep, now I’m working as the law dictates – just eight hours a day, resting, following a diet,” the former soldier said. “I’ve spent this week shut away here working … I’ll steadily be getting better.”

Chavez has been seen only twice in public since mid-April, presumably under strict doctor’s orders in his presidential palace. He made a half-hour appearance last Friday when he returned from Cuba after completing radiotherapy sessions.

Despite rumors he was wheelchair-bound, Chavez walked unaided down the airplane stairs and then inspected a military guard of honor.

CARACAS, May 18 (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ended a weeklong silence after his latest cancer treatment with a call to state television on Friday, singing a folk song and vowing to deepen his self-styled socialist “revolution.”

The usually garrulous and attention-seeking Chavez’s disappearances from public view have become longer and more frequent this year. That has fueled speculation his condition has worsened and may complicate a re-election bid in October.

Allies in the ruling Socialist Party, however, insist Chavez, 57, remains on top of government affairs, is recovering and is not mulling a succession. Chavez said he was working less than before his illness, but still about eight hours a day.

“Unfortunately, I can’t carry on being the wild horse I was. I will rest and get well again,” he said during the phone call, speaking in a firm voice.

“I didn’t used to sleep, now I’m working as the law dictates - just eight hours a day, resting, following a diet. … I ask God every day to let me finish the mission that the people have given me.”

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CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has not been seen or heard in public since returning a week ago from his latest cancer treatment in Cuba but was well enough to monitor a jail riot in Caracas, an ally said on Friday.

The usually garrulous and attention-seeking Chavez’s disappearances from public view have become longer and more frequent this year. That has fueled speculation his condition has worsened and may complicate a re-election bid in October.

Allies in the ruling Socialist Party, however, insist Chavez, 57, remains on top of government affairs, is recovering and is not mulling a succession.

“The ‘comandante’ has been in constant communication with us, he calls all the time,” Diosdado Cabello, head of the National Assembly and a leader of the Socialist Party, told reporters outside La Planta prison in Caracas, where troops quelled a riot on Thursday.

“The president has been tracking what’s been going on here … His eye is constantly on (state broadcaster) VTV, checking what’s happening.”

Chavez has been seen only twice in public since mid-April. That included a half-hour appearance last Friday when he returned from Cuba after completing radiotherapy sessions.

Despite rumors he was wheelchair-bound, Chavez walked without help down the airplane stairs and then inspected a military guard of honor. He spoke with a firm voice and even sang a song in honor of Venezuela’s mothers.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado’s remarkable first Formula One victory brought a rare moment of national unity to a homeland bitterly divided months before a presidential vote.

The 27-year-old driver has been closely associated with President Hugo Chavez’s socialist government due to numerous friendly appearances alongside the Venezuelan leader and the sponsorship of state oil company PDVSA.

Yet his thrilling Spanish Grand Prix win on Sunday – the first for a Venezuelan – elevated him beyond a symbol of Chavez’s socialism into a cherished national hero.

“Our shepherd,” was the headline in the normally anti-Chavez El Universal newspaper, playing on the Spanish-language meaning of his first name “Pastor”.

“He has united the nation with his triumph in Spain.”

Scores of Venezuelans tooted horns and unfurled banners around Caracas saying “Maldonado, pride of Venezuela!”

In repose after latest cancer treatment, Chavez tweeted his jubilation. “I said so: Our Pastor Maldonado won, making history. Bravo Pastor! Congratulations to you and all your fighting team! We shall overcome!”

CARACAS, May 14 (Reuters) – Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado’s remarkable first Formula One victory brought a rare moment of national unity to a homeland bitterly divided months before a presidential vote.

The 27-year-old driver has been closely associated with President Hugo Chavez’s socialist government due to numerous friendly appearances alongside the Venezuelan leader and the sponsorship of state oil company PDVSA.

Yet his thrilling Spanish Grand Prix win on Sunday – the first for a Venezuelan – elevated him beyond a symbol of Chavez’s socialism into a cherished national hero.

“Our shepherd,” was the headline in the normally anti-Chavez El Universal newspaper, playing on the Spanish-language meaning of his first name “Pastor”.

“He has united the nation with his triumph in Spain.”

Scores of Venezuelans tooted horns and unfurled banners around Caracas saying “Maldonado, pride of Venezuela!”

In repose after latest cancer treatment, Chavez tweeted his jubilation. “I said so: Our Pastor Maldonado won, making history. Bravo Pastor! Congratulations to you and all your fighting team! We shall overcome!”

CARACAS, May 11 (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez strode, sang and gave a rousing speech on Friday in a careful show of vigor after his latest cancer treatment in Cuba fanned rumors he was dying five months before an election.

The socialist Chavez, who had only been seen live in public once in the previous month, addressed the nation after flying back from Havana where he has completed six rounds of radiation therapy.

With Venezuelans watching on live TV for any sign of his condition, Chavez walked with relative ease from his plane, hugged ministers, inspected a military guard and improvised a song at the end of a 20-minute speech.

“I can tell you that in the last few days we successfully completed the radiation cycle, as planned by the medical team,” Chavez said in a strong voice.

“I come with great optimism that this treatment will have the effects we hope for, always asking God to help us and give us the miracle of life to keep serving.”

The official line in recent weeks has been that Chavez was out of the public limelight due to the effects of radiation treatment, but is on the road to recovery and will soon begin his re-election campaign ahead of the Oct. 7 vote.

But there is speculation, stoked by leaks from pro-opposition journalists citing sources in Chavez’s medical team, that his condition may have turned grave.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez headed home on Friday after a series of cancer radiation treatments in Cuba to a nation fretting over his health five months before a presidential election.

Photos issued by the Venezuelan government showed Chavez smiling as he bade farewell to Cuban President Raul Castro at the airport before boarding the flight back on Friday evening.

But the images, showing Chavez from the waist up dressed in loose-fitting sports clothes, gave few clues to the real state of health of a man only seen once in public in the last month.

“I’m on the plane, on the runway of ‘Jose Marti’ airport. Heading for the Venezuelan fatherland. With more optimism than ever! We will live and we will conquer!” Chavez said in a message on Twitter.

The official line is that Chavez has been out of the public limelight due to the effects of radiation treatment, but is on the road to recovery and will soon begin his re-election campaign ahead of the October 7 vote.

VENEZUELA ‘PARALYZED’

But there are fears, stoked by leaks from pro-opposition journalists citing sources in Chavez’s medical team, that his condition may have turned grave.

CARACAS, May 11 (Reuters) – A veteran Venezuelan crossword-writer has been accused of hiding a coded message to assassinate President Hugo Chavez’s brother in the latest surreal twist to election year politics in the South American nation.

Neptali Segovia was interviewed by intelligence agents, his newspaper said on Friday, after a state TV pundit said he had disguised a message to gun down Chavez’s brother, Adan, in the answers to various clues in a crossword this week.

“These sorts of messages were used a lot in World War Two,” the pundit, Perez Pirela, said earlier in the week in a dramatic denouncement of Ultimas Noticias newspaper on live television.

Segovia has denied any subversive intentions.

While causing laughter in some circles, the case also shows the dangerously polarized environment in Venezuela, where the socialist Chavez has been accusing opposition leaders of planning violence in the run-up to an October presidential vote.

Mystery over cancer-stricken Chavez’s condition has only heightened the nervous atmosphere in Venezuela.

The pugnacious Pirela, who uses an early evening TV show to lay into Chavez opponents, said a group of mathematicians, psychologists and others had studied the Spanish-language crossword and concluded it was a coded assassination plot.

CARACAS, May 10 (Reuters) – On a heady night in mid-February, Henrique Capriles roared himself hoarse with optimism at his victory rally in Caracas after trouncing rivals to win the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential ticket.

Three months later, despite an exhausting “house-by-house” tour intended to galvanize the nation behind him, Capriles remains firmly stuck behind President Hugo Chavez in most polls.

In some, he has actually slipped a point or two.

Furthermore, the opposition’s meticulously-planned campaign has failed so far to divert Venezuelans’ attention from the all-consuming subject of Chavez’s battle against cancer in an increasingly surreal run-up to the Oct. 7 election.

Capriles’ biggest policy announcement to date – vowing to create 3 million jobs in six years – made few inroads into newspaper headlines and street conversations obsessively picking over the rumors about Chavez’s treatment in Cuba.

“Capriles could be out anywhere today, but the rest of the country does not know about it,” said local pollster Oscar Schemel. His figures show Capriles static since winning the opposition primary, at 34 percent support versus 53 percent for Chavez.

“ONLY TALKING OF CHAVEZ”

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez broke a week-long silence on Monday to deny he had left Venezuela rudderless during his cancer treatment in Cuba and to promise a resounding re-election win in October.

“I’m governing – fulfilling my duties as head of state – but in this unique situation which I will be out of in the next few days, and then soon I will be back there,” Chavez told state TV in a brief phone call, his voice sounding firm and energetic.

Chavez’s normally ubiquitous media presence had slowed to a trickle of Tweets in recent days. He had not made any live contact with state media in the week since a public appearance last Monday before leaving for Cuba to receive treatment.

That had fanned criticism that he was no longer properly running the country and spurred unprecedented talk of a successor to the former soldier, who during 13 years in power has avoided cultivating a protégé who could replace him.

But Chavez insisted he was still in charge of government and would be back home soon to start mulling his re-election campaign.

“The opposition are never going to win any elections in Venezuela, ever again, we are going to give them a resounding knockout,” he said.

“I am governing with my full faculties.”