Venezuela's Hugo Chavez flew home on Friday after cancer surgery in Cuba, vowing to conquer the illness and win an October presidential election despite the need for radiation treatment. "Who said the path was going to be easy?" said Chavez, 57, in an emotional speech to the nation on the runway. "I have promised I will live, and to this end I will give my all!"
The socialist president's return to Venezuelan soil after an absence of three weeks in Havana reasserts his leadership, calms anxiety among supporters and quells whispers of a succession struggle behind the scenes. Yet little is known about what kind of cancer Chavez has or how serious it is. So big questions remain as to whether he is fit enough to campaign for an October 7 election that has turned into the biggest political fight of his 13-year rule.
Flying from Havana into Maiquetia international airport, on the Caribbean coast outside Caracas, Chavez smiled and hugged Cabinet members and relatives before giving a 30-minute address laced with religious and historical references. "This new return is a song, a prayer, a commitment to God," Chavez said. The president appeared sure-footed, but at times his voice quivered and he lacked his typical exuberance.
"You can already smell the Bolivarian victory on October 7," he said, referring to his inspiration and Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar. "They can't stop us!" Chavez had said he would come home on Sunday, but in typically unpredictable fashion he caught officials by surprise by announcing his imminent return on Twitter. The highway to the airport was jammed with VIPs' motorcades, sirens blaring, as his top aides raced to be there when his plane landed.
Jubilant supporters quickly adopted the Twitter hashtag ChavezVictorioso (Chavez Victorious). In news that stunned Venezuelans accustomed to Chavez's energetic and dominant presence, Cuban doctors removed a baseball-sized cancerous tumour from his pelvis in June 2011.
Following that procedure, Chavez said he was "completely cured." But a recurrence of the disease dented his credibility about his health. Last month, Chavez flew to Cuba to have a second tumour removed. Medical experts say the radiation treatment he faces could take a heavy physical toll. The cancer saga has eclipsed all other matters in South America's biggest oil exporter.