Above: Fidel Castro

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Hugo Chavez has returned from Cuba following months of treatment for cancer, and Fidel Castro says he is “very pleased” with the news.

In a letter published by Cuba’s government information agency, Castro wrote that Chavez “learned a lot about life” in what he called “hard days of suffering and sacrifice.”

“It took a long and agonizing wait, your amazing stamina and total consecration of doctors,” Castro wrote. “Now we will not have the privilege of hearing from you every day, and [will] return to the method of correspondence that we have used for years.”

In a statement on Twitter, the first by Chavez since November, he said he had returned to Venezuela, where he would continue his treatment.

A Venezuelan government communique said Chavez was breathing through a breaching tube in his throat and was receiving “aggressive treatment” to address his disease.