CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a surprise return from Cuba on Monday more than two months after surgery for cancer that threatens to end his 14-year rule of the South American OPEC member.

The 58-year-old socialist leader underwent a six-hour operation in Cuba on December 11. He had not been seen or heard in public since then until photos were published of him on Friday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez’s supporters joyfully brandished first photographs of him since cancer surgery two months ago while opposition activists said the images were worrying evidence of Venezuela’s political vacuum.

In a first proof of life since his six-hour operation in Cuba on December 11, authorities published four photos on Friday showing Chavez lying in a hospital bed smiling next to his daughters.

CARACAS (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez’s finance minister lashed critics of last week’s controversial Venezuela currency devaluation as “cretins” on Wednesday and chided Venezuelans for behaving like “nymphomaniacs” towards the U.S. dollar.

A 32 percent devaluation of the bolivar currency, from 4.3 to 6.4 to the dollar, announced last Friday came into effect on Wednesday amid national controversy over the rights and wrongs of the fifth such measure in a decade of socialist economics.

CARACAS, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Opposition leaders derided
another currency devaluation by President Hugo Chavez’s
government as evidence of economic incompetence, while some
anxious Venezuelans hit shops on Saturday in fear of price
increases.

Though unseen in public since cancer surgery two months ago
in Cuba, government ministers said Chavez personally ordered the
fifth devaluation of the bolivar in a decade of socialist
economics in the OPEC nation – this time by 32 percent.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Opposition leaders derided another currency devaluation by President Hugo Chavez’s government as evidence of economic incompetence, while some anxious Venezuelans packed stores in fear of price increases.

Though unseen in public since cancer surgery two months ago in Cuba, government ministers said Chavez personally ordered the fifth devaluation of the bolivar in a decade of socialist economics in the OPEC nation – this time by 32 percent.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s bespectacled and shaven-headed information minister stands solemnly at the microphone to impart the latest news on President Hugo Chavez’s cancer.

For a couple of minutes, vague descriptions of the patient’s “stability”, “progressive tendency” or “complications” waft across TV and radio airwaves into millions of Venezuelan homes.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, called on Wednesday for a proof of life from ailing President Hugo Chavez, who has not been seen publicly since cancer surgery in Cuba five weeks ago.

Chavez’s signature appeared in the government’s official gazette on Wednesday in a decree naming his new foreign minister – though the document wrongly placed him in Caracas.

CARACAS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Cancer-stricken Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez’s lung infection has been controlled and
his medical state is improving more than a month after his
latest surgery in Cuba, the government said on Sunday.

“Despite his delicate state … in recent days the general
medical evolution has been favorable,” said the latest official
health update, which was relatively positive compared to others
but still illustrated the gravity of Chavez’s situation.

CARACAS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Cancer-stricken Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez’s lung infection has been controlled and
his medical condition is developing positively, more than a
month after his latest surgery in Cuba, the government said on
Sunday.

“Despite his delicate state … in recent days the general
medical evolution has been favorable,” said the latest health
update read by Information Minister Ernesto Villegas.

CARACAS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s three most powerful
government figures after President Hugo Chavez were again
gathered in Havana on Sunday to check on their ailing leader’s
condition and meet with Cuban allies.

Vice-President Nicolas Maduro, Congress head Diosdado
Cabello, and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez have been shuttling to
and from Cuba since the 58-year-old socialist president’s fourth
and most serious cancer surgery a month ago.