Chávez sings and jokes before surgery Rallying supporters with folk tunes and jokes, Hugo Chávez bade an emotional farewell while supporters prayed for him around Venezuela before Friday's planned departure for cancer surgery in Cuba. The announcement that the president needs another operation for a probably malignant lesion gave the lie to Mr Chávez's previous claims of full recovery from cancer. It also threw the South American Opec member's October presidential election into uncertainty. Mr Chávez may need radiotherapy after the operation scheduled for early next week in Havana, where he first had surgery for a cancerous pelvic tumour last year, raising the prospect of another lengthy convalescence. But he has been upbeat in a stream of public appearances about quickly "conquering" his latest health setback. "I dreamt a while ago of Christ who came and said "Chávez, rise, it is not time to die, it is time to live,"" he said, in one story recalling the Biblical story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. "If the cancer is back, I declare it "squalid" and it will be dealt with mercilessly and defeated," he said, using a term the president coined years ago to pillory Venezuela's opposition. Telling anecdotes from his infancy and singing Venezuelan folk songs to the accompaniment of traditional instruments, Mr Chávez tried to raise supporters" spirits in a lengthy evening ceremony at a Caracas theatre carried live, by government order, on all Venezuelan television channels. Around the nation, supporters concerned about Mr Chávez's health organised religious services and sent him messages. One group sculpted a heart shape in coastal sand dunes that are a popular tourist spot in western Venezuela. State television dusted off old images of a young Mr Chávez rallying crowds, kissing children and playing sports. "We are the majority; there's no room for sadness," the socialist leader told supporters who cheered and applauded his every word at the Thursday evening ceremony. This was never in the plan for 2012 but those are God's ways and I am ready to face any difficulty. Mr Chávez's health woes have sent Venezuelan bonds higher on investor hopes for a more market-friendly government. Henrique Capriles, the opposition leader and 39-year-old governor of Miranda state who takes the centre-left Brazilian government model as his inspiration, is to challenge him in a vote on October 7. While Mr Chávez, 57, may benefit from a wave of sympathy, perceptions of physical weakness, particularly in contrast with Mr Capriles" image of youth and energy, could offset that. Before the announcement of his new surgery, opinion polls had shown Venezuelans broadly divided, with a third pro-Chávez, a third pro-opposition, and a third undecided.