Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has vowed to win his cancer battle in a surprise emotional speech in Caracas.
Returning
home after surgery in Cuba, he told a crowd of thousands gathered
outside the Miraflores presidential palace he still needed strict
medical treatment.
His voiced was strained at times but his words
were strong: "Let nobody think my presence here today, July 4, means
that we have won," he said. "I swear that we will win the battle".
The
56-year-old will have to follow a strict regime of rest and
recuperation and he told supporters that his medical treatment would
also continue.
Chavez's return changes the political dynamics once
again in Venezuela, where politicians on all sides had been bracing for
a protracted months-long absence of the man who has dominated the OPEC
member nation since taking power in 1999.
Some supporters wept as Chavez recounted details of his operation in Cuba. "Those days were not easy," he said.
The
unpredictable, populist Chavez jetted in just in time for two days of
celebrations of Venezuela's 200th anniversary of independence from
Spain.
"He wanted to prevent the situation from unraveling," said
analyst Michael Shifter. "The bicentennial was too compelling an
occasion to miss. ... It was politically irresistible."
Before speaking from the balcony, Chavez waved a large Venezuelan flag and made the Christian sign of the cross.
With
their "comandante" back on Venezuelan soil, elated supporters took to
the streets of Caracas all day, chanting: "He's back! He's back!" and
"Ooh! Aah! He's here to stay!"
Chavez's exact condition remains
unclear though. He may still face lengthy treatment, throwing into
question his ability to prepare for a 2012 re-election bid.
Chavez
said his homecoming was "the start of the return," implying to some he
may keep a low profile in Venezuela or even return to Cuba for further
cycles of treatment.
