State television broadcast footage of Chavez being greeted at the airport by Vice President Elias Jaua and other ministers.
“I thank you for coming so quickly to this meeting,” Chavez told his Cabinet ministers. His arrival was not previously announced.
The 56-year-old president underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor, which he said was the size of a baseball. He hasn’t 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 says chemotherapy is necessary to ensure cancer cells don’t reappear.
“I address the country from my heart to express my immense happiness and gladness to be in Venezuela after one week,” Chavez said in his brief televised speech.
“Throughout this week, I haven’t lost an instant in my attention to Venezuela — what happens, the problems, the solutions,” Chavez said.
“After this week of intense work in Cuba with a quality Venezuelan and Cuban medical team, I should tell you... that I’ve come back better than I left,” he said, adding that tests had found no signs of cancer cells in his body.
Chavez said Friday that he had successfully completed a “first cycle” of chemotherapy and will next begin the second of various additional stages. He did not when the next series of chemotherapy treatments would begin.
The leftist president, who has been in power since 1999, has said he intends to run for re-election in late 2012.
