Chavez returns from Cuba - UPI.com CARACAS, Venezuela, March 17 (UPI) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned home after spending three weeks in Cuba for cancer treatment, officials say. Chavez, 57, left for Cuba in late February shortly after it was announced his cancer had returned. Although the government has thus far refused to specify the type of cancer Chavez suffers from, he underwent surgery to have a small malignant growth removed from his pelvic region. Last year, doctors removed a baseball-sized tumor from the same area, The Wall Street Journal reported. Chavez is scheduled to receive radiation therapy in the next few weeks, but upon his arrival Friday at a Caracas-area airport, he told reporters he was responding well to the treatment he received in Cuba. The socialist leader, who is running for re-election in October, asked for patience and "discipline" while he completes his recovery.