“Returning to Venezuela. Thank you, my God. Thank you, beloved people. I will continue the treatment here,” Chavez wrote on twitter and on his website, the first message from him on twitter since the 1st of November last year.
The Venezuelan president also thanked Cuba’s former president Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, the current president.
Chavez, who has been president for 14 years, was re-elected for another 6-year term in October, but has not been sworn in yet because he had to undergo treatment for cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 and has had 4 operations since then. The exact extent of his illness has not been disclosed.
Chavez travelled to Havana in December last year for his latest surgery.
Pictures of him smiling on his hospital bed in Cuba, surrounded by his daughters and reading the newspaper, were made public last week in Venezuela.
From Cuba, Chavez ordered Venezuela’s fifth currency devaluationin about 10 years on Friday February 8, just before a long holiday weekend; the bolivar was devalued by 32% to 6.3 for one dollar but analysts said this was not enoughto solve the country’s economic problems.
Shortages of basic goods are frequent in Venezuela, as people stock up for fear of rampant inflation and retailers find it difficult to get foreign currency to pay for imports.
At the same time with the devaluation, the central bank announced that it would stop selling dollar bonds in the secondary market (Sitme) as a way to provide supplementary hard currency to companies and analysts say this will increase problems for companies that rely on foreign trade.
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