CARACAS, Venezuela -- One of Hugo Chavez's brothers said Monday that the Venezuelan president is expected to return home from Cuba in the coming days as he continues to recover nearly six weeks after undergoing cancer surgery.
Argenis Chavez, one of the president's five brothers and the president of the National Electric Corporation, told The Associated Press that the president continues to recover.
He said after an event at the Supreme Court that the decision about when Chavez returns is up to his medical team, but that he is expected to return to Venezuela in the "coming days."
The president hasn't been seen or spoken publicly since he left for Cuba on Dec. 10 for his fourth cancer-related operation.
Argenis Chavez said he recently saw and talked with his brother in Havana, though he didn't specify when or say how the president looked. He said that Chavez remained in Cuba accompanied by his children.
Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised interview on Sunday that Chavez is finishing with a "post-operative" phase of his treatment and next is to enter a "new phase of treatment," which he said would be announced.
"He's climbing the hill. He is becoming stabilized in all his values," Maduro said, without giving details.
The opposition has demanded more information about Chavez's condition. The president has been undergoing treatments for cancer since June 2011 but has declined to specify the type of pelvic cancer he is fighting or the location of tumors that have been removed.
Chavez's allies in the National Assembly indefinitely postponed the president's inauguration, which had been scheduled for Jan. 10. The opposition has argued that was unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court sided with the government and ruled that the president could take the oath of office before the court at a later date.
A jailed former defence minister, Raul Baduel, has joined other government critics in accusing the president's allies of trampling on democratic norms.
"A falsification of the state has been taking shape," Baduel told the AP in written responses to a questionnaire over the weekend.
Baduel said that democratic institutions in the country have been degraded and "everything revolves around the personal ambition of Hugo Chavez to remain in power in spite of the destruction of the country." He said the other branches of government are acting in submission to the executive branch.
Baduel also accused the military's current commanders of taking actions that "infringe on these constitutional precepts."
"I'm sure that the democratic spirit of the Venezuelan majority will form a common front to return to the democratic path through the orchestration of non-violent political defiance," Baduel said.
The former military chief was convicted of embezzlement and abuse of power, but has insisted he is innocent and dismissed the case against him as a politically motivated reprisal for his opposition to Chavez.
