VP: Ailing Chavez making progress

President Hugo Chavez, who is recovering in Cuba from cancer surgery, is making progress, his vice president said Tuesday after returning from a trip to Havana to visit the Venezuelan leader. Chavez, who has been battling complications since undergoing surgery more than a month ago, is "climbing the hill, he is advancing," said Vice President Nicolas Maduro. Maduro, who returned overnight after a three-day visit to Havana, said he and other members of the government had spoken with Chavez over the past few days about national matters. "We saw him up until yesterday," he said, adding that they had updated ailing leader on "how our people is progressing." Maduro spoke at a meeting with the nation's governors. The government's most recent status report on Chavez's health said he has shown improvement in recent days but is still suffering from a "respiratory insufficiency" caused by a severe pulmonary infection. In office since 1999, Chavez was too sick to make it to his own inauguration on January 10, so his swearing-in has been indefinitely postponed. He was re-elected October 7 to another six year term. Among those who returned from Havana with Maduro were National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, Solicitor General Cilia Flores and Adan Chavez, the president's brother.