Chavez returns to Venezuela from Cuba treatment

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez returned home early Thursday after an 11-day trip to Cuba for cancer treatment, saying he will leave again shortly to continue his radiation therapy.

Chavez landed in Venezuela around 12:50 am local time (0520 GMT) with no fanfare, and in contrast to his earlier arrivals, this one was not broadcast live on national television, though a video was aired later by state-run Venezolana de Television.

Dressed in a track suit, Chavez also dismissed with his usual address to the nation and exchanged only a few brief words with some members of his cabinet, who received him at Simon Bolivar International Airport, located 25 kilometers north of the capital city of Caracas.

Chavez told the head of his cabinet delegation, Executive Vice President Elias Jaua, that he was glad to be back in Venezuela and added, "I never really leave."

Chavez left for Cuba April 14 to continue an intensive round of treatments that began March 24, following surgery to remove a tumor in his pelvic area.

The head of state has been traveling back and forth frequently between Caracas and Havana, where he is receiving radiation therapy at the Medical Surgery Research Center (CIMEQ) where he also has been operated on three times.

As Chavez himself had said earlier that his treatments called for five separate rounds of radiation therapy of five consecutive days each, his treatment should have already concluded. Nevertheless, he said in a telephone call from Cuba Monday that he would return to Venezuela from April 26 to 28, and leave again for more treatment.