Chavez recovery positive despite 'complications

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez experienced "complications," including bleeding, during his cancer surgery but was showing positive signs of recovery on Thursday, a senior aide said. Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said that, during his treatment in Cuba, Chavez had suffered "bleeding that required the adoption of corrective measures which permitted its opportune control." It was the first time Venezuelan officials had acknowledged complications in the six hours of surgery that Chavez, 58, underwent on Tuesday in Havana. "The patient is in a progressive and favorable recovery of the normal values of his vital signs," Villegas said, in a television and radio address. "This process of recovery, however, requires a precautionary time as a consequence of the complexity of the operation and also because of complications that arose," he said. Chavez' aides have openly warned Venezuelans to prepare themselves for the worst as the country, already deeply divided over Chavez's populist Bolivarian revolution, heads into a period of high uncertainty. On Wednesday, Villegas urged Venezuelans to think of it "as you would when a parent is sick, in a delicate situation after four surgeries in a year and a half." "We are confident that, with the love of millions, the commandante will get well soon and will come to take the helm before January 10. If not, our people should be prepared to understand it," he said in a statement. The latest turn in the 18-month-old saga comes less than a month before Chavez was to be sworn in to another six year term, and three days before regional elections seen as an important test of political strength. Before departing for Cuba on Sunday, Chavez left Vice President Nicolas Maduro in charge, for the first time naming him as his successor in the event he is incapacitated. The constitution calls for new presidential elections to be held within 30 days if the president is incapacitated either before he can be sworn in to office or in his first four years. Constitutional experts say the presidential inauguration cannot be postponed in case of illness and Chavez has to be in the country when he takes the oath office. Procedural succession issues aside, there was the broader question of the political void Chavez would leave if he dies or must step aside. He has reserved for himself every major decision since taking office in 1999, dominating a highly personalized movement that has few other leaders of his stature. Until last week, when he stunned the nation with the news his cancer had returned, Chavez appears to have banked on making a full recovery, despite debilitating rounds of radiation treatment and chemotherapy since he was first diagnosed in June 2011. He claimed a year later that he was cancer free before embarking on his successful but arduous reelection campaign. A somber, prayerful tone has descended on the country since Chavez's latest medical stay in Cuba. His supporters held religious services and candlelight vigils across the country, praying for their leader to overcome the disease. On Wednesday cabinet members, staff, honor guard and members of the Venezuelan military went to a special Catholic mass at the Miraflores government palace to pray for the president's health. The event was re-broadcast on government VTV television. State television has also been broadcasting spots praising Chavez's accomplishments, as well as a pro-government documentary entitled "From Bolivar to Chavez." A leader of Chavez's party, Diosdado Cabello, urged the armed forces to stay united and watch out for any attempt to destabilize the country. He said Chavez himself had warned of this before leaving for Cuba. "Patriots, those of us who love our country, must stay together," Cabello said. The state governor whom Chavez defeated in the October presidential election, Henrique Capriles, accused the government of using the president's illness to get out the vote in Sunday's regional elections. "What does what is happening to the president have to do with the election?" said Capriles, who is running for reelection as governor of Miranda state, where Caracas is located. Indeed, Maduro on Tuesday likened a vote for pro-Chavez candidates to "a hug, a kiss, a vote of love for Chavez." Chavez supporters are expected to win in most of Venezuela's 23 states.