Venezuela's vice-president is returning home from visiting Hugo Chávez in Cuba and said the ailing president's condition remained "delicate" three weeks after cancer surgery.
With rumours swirling that Chávez had taken a turn for the worse, Nicolas Maduro said he had met with the president twice and had spoken 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," Maduro said in an interview pre-recorded in Havana and broadcast on Tuesday night by the Caracas-based television network Telesur.
Both supporters and opponents of Chávez have been on edge in the past week amid mixed signals from the government about the president's health. Chávez has not been seen or heard from since the operation on 11 December, and officials announced on Sunday that he faced complications from a respiratory infection.
Maduro did not provide any new details about Chávez's complications during Tuesday's interview but urged Venezuelans to ignore gossip, saying rumours were being spread due to "the hatred of the enemies of Venezuela".
Maduro said Chávez faced "a complex and delicate situation", but added that 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," he said.
Maduro's remarks about the president came at the end of an interview in which he praised Venezuelan government programmes, recalled the history of the Cuban revolution and touched on what he called the long-term strength of Chávez's socialist Bolivarian Revolution movement.
He said that former Cuban president Fidel Castro had been at the hospital, and praised Cuba's government. "Today we're together on a single path," Maduro said.
Maduro's political opponents said on Twitter that he sounded like a mouthpiece for the Cuban government, accusing him of withholding key details about Chávez's condition.
They have demanded the government provide the country with a full medical report.
