Ally says Chavez is ‘very well’

BOGOTA, Colombia – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is improving after undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, Bolivian leader Evo Morales said Sunday.

Morales, a close ally of Chavez who visited him in Caracas last week, remarked on the Venezuelan leader’s health after attending Bolivia’s soccer match against Colombia at the a tournament in Argentina.

“He’s very well, very well,” Morales told Colombian radio station Caracol. “He has told us it was a very difficult situation for him, but he has survived the bad moment, the worst. As always, under the control of his doctors.”

Chavez has said he underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor. His foreign minister said it was extracted from the same part of the “pelvic region” where Chavez had an abscess removed nine days earlier.