Hugo Chavez 'battling' for his life: VP

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life in a Caracas military hospital 10 days after returning from cancer treatment in Cuba, his vice president said Thursday.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro did not provide more details, but the government said last week that Chavez was still suffering from a respiratory infection and that the trajectory was not favorable.
As he presented subsidized homes on state-run television, Maduro said that Chavez was "battling for his health, for his life, and we are accompanying him," adding later that the president was in a "complex and difficult" stage.
Chavez's chosen successor and other officials have used similar phrases to describe the leftist leader's condition in recent weeks.
Chavez, the flamboyant standard-bearer of the Latin American left for more than a decade, has not spoken or appeared in public since undergoing a fourth round of cancer surgery in Cuba on December 11.
Chavez was first diagnosed with cancer in the pelvic region in June 2011. He underwent four surgeries in 18 months, as well as chemotherapy. Officials have provided virtually no details on the type, location or severity of the disease.