Chavez appears in Cuba photos

CARACAS, Venezuela - Sixty-seven days after Venezuelans last saw him, President Hugo Chavez reappeared Friday, when government officials televised photographs of him recuperating in Cuba with two of his daughters at his side.

The images were the first evidence presented to Venezuelans that Chavez, who was last seen Dec. 10 when he boarded a plane to Cuba for a fourth surgery to remove cancerous tissue, was alive and convalescing.

In the photos, Chavez smiles from a hospital bed while flanked by daughters Maria Gabriela and Rosa Virginia. They are pictured looking at Thursday's issue of Cuba's state newspaper, Granma, the images serving as a sort of proof of life to those who doubted that El Comandante remained alive. The photos were shown on state television by Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza, Chavez's son-in-law.

The photographs have come as tensions have flared in Venezuela, with opposition leaders increasingly demanding to see evidence that Chavez has been recuperating, as his aides have claimed.

Although he had once held forth on television as if he were the host of a reality show, there has been nothing but silence since his December surgery. No photographs or video had been released. Chavez missed his Jan. 10 swearing in for a fourth term, following a bruising reelection campaign last year. He had also stopped posting on Twitter and making late-night phone calls to his favorite state television interviewers.

Then, Friday morning, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said that after a "complicated postoperative process, the patient is conscious, with his intellectual functions intact, in close communication with his government team."

Villegas said a respiratory infection had been controlled, but Chavez still faced difficulties.