Hugo Chavez is conscious and fully aware of how "complex" his condition remains three weeks after difficult cancer surgery in Havana

Hugo Chavez is conscious and fully aware of how "complex" his condition remains three weeks after difficult cancer surgery in Havana, the Venezuelan president's handpicked successor said Tuesday.
  
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who accused the Venezuelan right of spreading what he described as sick lies and rumors about Chavez's health, said that he had spoken to the ailing leader twice over the past three days.
  
"He is absolutely aware of how complex the post-operative condition is," Maduro said in an interview from Havana with Telesur, a cable news channel funded by Venezuela and other Latin American states.

He said Chavez demanded that "we should keep the people informed, always with the truth no matter how hard it might be in a given circumstance." "We are confronting a situation in which the president is being attended to, is undergoing his treatment, in a complex situation and the whole time we are awaiting a positive outcome," Maduro added. "At times there have been slight improvements, at times there have been stationary situations."

But he expressed confidence that "sooner rather than later" Chavez would surmount the crisis, adding that Chavez had squeezed his hand "with gigantic force" while they talked.