Chavez will run for re-election in 2012

President to seek another term despite cancer surgery

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will seek another six-year term in an election next year despite recent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, he told a newspaper in an interview published late on Sunday.

News that the 56-year-old socialist leader underwent an operation last month in Havana to remove a baseball-sized tumor has called into question his long-term health and his fitness to continue governing the OPEC nation of 29 million people.