Chávez hit by "severe" respiratory illness CARACAS, March 4 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's breathing problems have worsened and he is suffering from a "severe" new respiratory infection as he struggles to recover from cancer surgery, the government said in a sombre update on Monday. The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost three months since undergoing surgery in Cuba. It was his fourth operation since he was diagnosed with the disease in mid-2011. IN Americas Politics & Policy Today there is a worsening of his respiratory function. Related to his depressed immune system, there is now a new, severe infection," said Ernesto Villegas, information minister, reading the latest brief, official statement on his condition. Mr Chávez made a surprise homecoming two weeks ago with none of the fanfare and celebration that accompanied previous returns from treatment in Havana. The government said Mr Chávez was fighting for his life behind armed guards at a Caracas military hospital. "The president has been receiving high-impact chemotherapy, along with other complementary treatments . . . his general condition continues to be very delicate," Mr Villegas said. Mr Chávez suffered multiple complications after the December 11 surgery, including unexpected bleeding and an earlier severe respiratory infection that officials said had been controlled. The government said he had trouble speaking because he was breathing through a tracheal tube, but that he was giving orders to ministers by writing them down. "The commander-president remains clinging to Christ and to life, conscious of the difficulties that he is facing, and complying strictly with the programme designed by his medical team," Mr Villegas said. Mr Chávez had previously undergone gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which at times left him bald and bloated. He twice wrongly declared himself cured. The only sight of the former soldier since his latest operation were four photos published by the government while he was still in Havana, showing him lying in a hospital bed. Vice-president Nicolás Maduro - Mr Chávez's preferred successor - said on Friday the president had decided for himself in mid-February that he would return to Venezuela from Cuba. Mr Chávez was going to begin a "tougher and more intense" phase of his treatment, Mr Maduro said, and he wanted to be in Caracas. Mr Maduro said that included chemotherapy - prompting some in the opposition to question whether chemotherapy can be successfully given to patients in such a delicate state. The government is furious at rumours in recent days that Mr Chávez might have died, blaming them on an opposition plot by "far-right fascists" to destabilise the Opec nation, which boasts the world's biggest oil reserves. In his broadcast from the military hospital, Mr Villegas warned people to stay on alert against a "psychological war" being prepared abroad and used by the local opposition. Opposition leaders have accused Mr Maduro of repeatedly lying about the president's condition. Several dozen anti-government student protesters have chained themselves up in public to demand proof that Mr Chávez is alive and in Venezuela. Should the Venezuelan leader step down or die, an election would be held within 30 days and would probably pit Mr Maduro against opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Mr Chávez in a presidential election in October. The stakes are also high for the rest of Latin America. Mr Chávez has been the most vocal critic of Washington in the region and has funded hefty aid programmes for leftist governments from Bolivia to Cuba.