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Thursday, Dec 13, 2012 6:30 PM UTC

Gov’t: Chavez suffered complications in surgery

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Gov't: Chavez suffered complications in surgeryA woman places flowers in front of an image of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in preparation for a mass in support of him in Managua, Nicaragua, Wednesday Dec. 12, 2012. Venezuela's Information Minister Ernesto Villegas expressed hope about the Chavez's returning home for his Jan. 10 swearing-in for a new six-year term after his cancer surgery in Cuba, but said in a written message on a government website that if Chavez doesn't make it, "our people should be prepared to understand it." (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) (Credit: AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez suffered bleeding during his cancer surgery in Cuba but was recovering from the complications, Venezuela’s government said Thursday.

Chavez suffered “bleeding that required the use of corrective measures” during Tuesday’s surgery, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said, reading a government statement. It said those measures allowed for the “opportune control” of the bleeding.

Villegas also said that Chavez was going through “a progressive and favorable recovery of the normal values of his vital signs.”

“This recovery process, nevertheless, will require a prudent period of time as a consequence of the complexity of the surgery performed,” he said.

Villegas expressed hope a day earlier about the president returning home for his Jan. 10 swearing-in for a new six-year term, but said in a written message on a government website that if Chavez doesn’t make it, “our people should be prepared to understand it.”

Chavez underwent his fourth cancer-related operation in Havana after announcing that tests had found the illness had come back despite previous operations, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Chavez has kept secret some details about the pelvic cancer, including the type and location of the tumors that have been removed.

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