Chavez Heads Home after Cancer Treatment in Cuba

President Hugo Chavez announced in a Twitter message late Wednesday that he was flying home to Venezuela after his latest round of radiation treatment for cancer in Cuba.

"Hello my dear countrymen. I'm boarding the plane at Jose Marti Airport (in Havana). I've completed the second round of radiation therapy," Chavez wrote.

"Over there I can see General President Raul Castro. Thanks Fidel! Thanks Raul! Thank You, Cuba! I will live, and I will win!" Chavez added.

Vice President Elias Jaua earlier said Chavez had undergone daily radiation treatments in recent days in Cuba, and that the five-week cycle of radiation "has been a success."

Chavez, 57, keeps up a frenetic appearance rate on national media and by Twitter; his absence from public appearances since Saturday sparked a flurry of new rumors about his health, none of which have been independently confirmed.

The president, who is already in the midst of a tough reelection fight, is expected to continue his radiation treatment in Havana, but return home for brief periods between treatment.

Chavez completed the first and second rounds in Havana, where he had surgery last month to remove a malignant tumor in the same area where another tumor was excised in June 2011. Communist Cuba is Chavez's closest regional ally.

Officials in Caracas have never specified the type of cancer the president has, but insist it has not spread to other organs.

Chavez -- Latin America's most emblematic elected leftist leader, whose government props up Havana's and helps other allies with subsidized fuel -- faces a stiff challenge from 39-year-old state governor Henrique Capriles, who was chosen to represent a unified opposition in primaries earlier this year.

Some 18 million Venezuelans will be eligible to vote in the October ballots.

The Venezuelan president on Wednesday also told Brazilian former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that his treatment "is going quite well," the Venezuelan foreign ministry said.