Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has entered "a new phase" in his recovery from a fourth cancer surgery at a hospital in Cuba, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Friday.

"Fortunately, the post-operative cycle has closed and the president entered a new phase of treatment for his illness," Maduro said at an event broadcast on VTV state television.

A 25-year-old Lebanese businessman has been kidnapped in northern Venezuela, his relative in Lebanon said Thursday.

Omar Hussein Fares, who has an electronics shop in the state of Falcon, was kidnapped several days ago, the National News Agency quoted his relative as saying.

President Hugo Chavez has beaten a severe respiratory infection that occurred after his latest cancer surgery in Cuba, Venezuelan Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said Saturday in Santiago.

"The respiratory infection has been overcome, though there still is some degree of breathing difficulty that is being treated appropriately," he said on the sidelines of a regional summit with European Union leaders in the Chilean capital.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has entered the phase of "complementary treatment" following his cancer surgery in December in Cuba, Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced.

Maduro made the statement after his return from Havana, where he was able to see the recovering Chavez and had found him "in his best moment."

At least 50 people were killed and 90 others wounded Friday in clashes between prison gangs and security guards at a prison in northwest Venezuela, a hospital director said.

Television images showed National Guard troops surrounding the Uribana prison in Lara state as inmates in bloody clothes were taken out of the building.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making progress in his recovery from cancer surgery, but faces a tough battle ahead, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Thursday.

"The president is in the process of recovering. However, the upcoming battle is more complex," Jaua said upon his return from Cuba, where he was visiting the ailing 58-year-old Chavez.

Thousands of Venezuelans marched in support of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez in Caracas Wednesday on the anniversary of the day the country's last dictator was overthrown.

Meanwhile, an opposition planned a separate rally for later in the day, marking the same anniversary in 1958 -- when Marco Perez Jimenez was ousted -- but from a different perspective.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is undergoing physical therapy to return home from Cuba, where he has been convalescing from cancer surgery, Bolivian President Evo Morales said Tuesday.

Morales, who made the announcement in a report to the Bolivian Congress at the start of his eighth year in office, said he had been in contact "with Cuba" Sunday and Monday. He did not provide more specifics about the source of his information.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is "gaining strength" as he finishes post-operative care and enters a "new phase" of cancer treatment, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Sunday.

Chavez anointed Maduro his political heir before flying to Cuba for a fourth round of cancer surgery on December 11. The longtime Venezuelan leader's condition has been the topic of much debate ever since.

President Hugo Chavez, who is recovering in Cuba from cancer surgery, is making progress, his vice president said Tuesday after returning from a trip to Havana to visit the Venezuelan leader.

Chavez, who has been battling complications since undergoing surgery more than a month ago, is "climbing the hill, he is advancing," said Vice President Nicolas Maduro.