Venezuelans on edge over Chávez health CARACAS, Venezuela - Supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chávez alike nervously welcomed the new year, left on edge by shifting signals from the government about the Venezuelan leader's condition three weeks after cancer surgery in Cuba. With rumours swirling that Mr Chávez had taken a turn for the worse, vice-president Nicolas Maduro said in a televised interview in Cuba that he had met with the president twice, spoken with him and planned to return to Venezuela on Wednesday. Mr Maduro said Mr Chávez faces "a complex and delicate situation." But he also said that when he talked with the president and looked at his face, he seemed to have "the same strength as always." All the time we've been hoping for his positive evolution. Sometimes he has had light improvements, sometimes stationary situations," Mr Maduro said in the pre-recorded interview, which was broadcast on Tuesday night by the Caracas-based television network Telesur. I was able to see him twice, converse with him. He's totally conscious of the complexity of his post-operative state and he expressly asked us . . . to keep the nation informed always, always with the truth, as hard as it may be in certain circumstances. Mr Chávez has not been seen or heard from since the December 11 operation, and officials have reported a series of ups and downs in his recovery - the most recent, on Sunday, announcing that new complications from a respiratory infection had put the president in a "delicate" state. Speculation has grown since Mr Maduro announced those latest troubles, which were a sharp shift from his remark nearly a week earlier that the president had been up and walking. In Tuesday's interview, Mr Maduro did not provide any new details about Mr Chávez's complications. But he joined other Chávez allies in urging Venezuelans to ignore gossip, saying rumours are being spread due to "the hatred of the enemies of Venezuela." He did not refer to any rumours in particular, though one of them circulating online had described Mr Chávez as being in a coma. Political opponents of Mr Chávez have complained that the government has not told the country nearly enough about his health. Mr Maduro's remarks about the president came at the end of an interview in which he praised his government's programmes at length, recalled the history of the Cuban revolution and touched on what he called the long-term strength of Mr Chávez's socialist Bolivian Revolution movement. He mentioned that Fidel Castro, former Cuban president had been in the hospital, and praised Cuba's government effusively. "Today we're together on a single path," Mr Maduro said. Critics in Venezuela sounded off on Twitter while the interview was aired, some saying Mr Maduro sounded like a mouthpiece for the Cuban government. In their online messages, many Chávez opponents criticised a dearth of information provided by Mr Maduro, accusing him of withholding key details about Mr Chávez's condition. Opposition politicians have demanded that the government provide the country with a full medical report. Even some of his supporters said on Tuesday that they wished they knew more. "We're distressed by El Comandante's health," said Francisca Fuentes, who was walking through a city centre square with her grandchildren. I think they aren't telling us the whole truth. It's time for them to speak clearly. It's like when you have a sick relative and the doctor lies to you every once in a while. Mr Chávez has been fighting an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer since June 2011. He has declined to reveal the precise location of the tumours that have been surgically removed. The president announced on December 8, two months after winning re-election, that his cancer had come back despite previous surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. "There's nothing we can do except wait for the government to deign to say how he is really," said Daniel Jimenez, an opposition supporter who was in a square in an affluent Caracas neighbourhood. Mr Jimenez and many other Venezuelans say it seems increasingly unlikely that Mr Chávez can be sworn in as scheduled on January 10 for his new term.