Chavez on song after chemotherapy

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez sang and recited a poem in honour of independence hero Simon Bolivar, appearing upbeat and energetic after his first week of chemotherapy in Cuba.

Mr Chavez said in a televised speech that he was optimistic he would survive cancer, but added that risks remained and that he was under strict orders from his doctors to limit his agenda.

After returning to Caracas on Saturday night, Mr Chavez said thorough tests had found no signs that any cancer cells had reappeared.

He spoke at the childhood home of Bolivar on the anniversary of his birth, praising the legacy of the founding father after whom the president named his socialist-inspired Bolivarian Revolution movement.

Mr Chavez declared “Long live Simon Bolivar, now and forever!”, recited a poem about Bolivar by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and sang outside the house with a folk music group while a crowd of supporters cheered.

Mr Chavez said he initially had not been sure he would make it in time for the annual celebration.

“It depended on how things went in the first stage” of chemotherapy, he said. He was in Cuba throughout last week, and said on Friday that he successfully completed his first cycle of chemotherapy.

The president underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumour, which he said was the size of a baseball. He has not said what type of cancer he has been diagnosed with or specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his pelvic region.

He said that a day after he arrived in Cuba on July 16, he underwent thorough medical imaging tests, and that Fidel Castro brought him good news afterwards.

“He told me three words: ’You don’t have anything’,” Mr Chavez said. He said the exam found that throughout his body there was no sign of any “malignant cell that had escaped the place where the tumour was”.

Mr Chavez added: “Not in the place where the tumour was either. And that was the spot most checked, of course.”

Castro has been at Mr Chavez’s side throughout much of his treatment in Cuba. Mr Chavez said his friend and mentor urged him not to overexert himself and told him: “Rein in the horses. Don’t believe that everything is already solved, and the people shouldn’t believe it. The people have to know.”