Chavez greets home crowd after operation

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez held an energetic homecoming celebration today, rallying thousands of supporters from a balcony of the presidential palace after nearly three weeks in Cuba for cancer surgery.

The 57-year-old turned the event into a campaign rally, vowing to win re-election in the October 7 presidential vote and demanding unity from his followers, denouncing a state governor who recently broke ranks with his party as a “traitor to the revolution”.