AFP/Venezuela

Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said doctors had treated the infection and brought it under control, adding that it was a common consequence of “complicated surgeries” and that the ailing leader required “absolute rest”.

Chavez, 58, is due to be sworn in for a third presidential term on January 10, but the country is now on tenterhooks to see if the outspoken, formerly tireless leader will remain their president, become incapacitated, or worse.

He has named foreign minister and vice president Nicolas Maduro as both his temporary replacement and hand-picked successor.

Chavez’s ruling socialist party tightened its grip on power over the weekend by winning 20 of the 23 governorships in local elections, snatching up four that had been held by the opposition.

But Chavez, who is still in Cuba following his latest surgery, has yet to publicly react to the victory.

Chavez, the face of the Latin American left for more than a decade and a firebrand critic of US “imperialism”, had claimed before embarking on his arduous re-election campaign earlier this year that he was cancer-free.

But he was forced to tell the nation afterwards that he had suffered a recurrence of the disease and returned to Cuba, a key Venezuelan ally, for surgery last week.

Venezuela has never said what type of cancer Chavez has, nor which organs are affected, but doctors removed a tumor from his pelvic region last year.

Aides admitted that Chavez experienced “complications” from this most recent surgery, including bleeding that now appears to be under control.