Caracas (Platts)--27Nov2012/317 pm EST/2017 GMT
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez will return to Cuba this weekend to continue medical treatment, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello said Tuesday. This would be the first such intervention announced publicly since the cancer-stricken Chavez won re-election for a third term October 7. "He will be present January 10 to be sworn into office and to present the 2013-2019 National Plan," Cabello said, reading a message Chavez sent to the National Assembly. Cabello made the announcement from Maracay, where he participated in a military ceremony. "They have recommended for me a special treatment with several sessions of hyperbaric oxygen that together with physical therapy will continue to consolidate the process of strengthening in my health that I have experienced," Chavez said in the message. The socialist leader has undergone periodic treatment for cancer since 2011. He underwent surgery in Cuba in June 2011 to remove a baseball-size tumor, but the government has only said it was in the "pelvic region" and has not specified the type of cancer.--Mery Mogollon, newsdesk@platts.com--Edited by Carla Bass, carla_bass@platts.com