Hugo Chavez
© unknownVenezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned home almost three weeks after he underwent an operation in Cuba to have a lesion containing cancerous cells removed.

Chavez arrived in Caracas on Friday night, the Associated Press reported.

Surgeons at Havana's Cimeq Hospital operated on the 57-year-old socialist leader for 90 minutes late on February 27.

He had been diagnosed with a two-centimeter-long lesion in the same part of his body from which a cancerous tumor was removed in 2011.

The Venezuelan leader, who came to power in 1999, is seeking another six-year term in the upcoming presidential election, which will be held on October 7, 2012.