MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Video on Chavez playing bocce to dispel rumours about his health condition

“We are continuing the treatment for the benefit of the Venezuelan people”

The Venezuelan government on Tuesday broadcast a video of President Hugo Chavez playing the European bowling game of bocce in Cuba in a new effort to quash rumours that he was dying of cancer while out of the country.

The video showed a jovial and chirpy Chavez strolling in a garden and playing the bowling game with his brother and two ministers on Monday in Havana where he is having radiation treatment for an undisclosed cancer.

“We are continuing the treatment, facing the difficulties, governing and taking political decisions ... for the benefit of the Venezuelan people,” Chavez said in the 13-minute video.

The unusually long silence, since leaving for Cuba on April 14, stirred speculation about his health and raised doubts about his political future as he seeks re-election in an October 7 vote.

The rumours forced Chavez to call state television on Monday to tell Venezuelans he was all right and still able to govern.

During his nine-day silence he had only shown signs of life in brief messages on Twitter that led his opponents to criticize him for running the country remotely by tweets.

Chavez, wearing a track suit, appeared in the video with his brother Adan, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and Science Minister Jorge Arreaza, who is Chavez's son-in-law, his daughter Maria Gabriela and a grandson.

Chavez said he was working on a new labour law that is expected to cut the work week and extend labour benefits.

“I have great faith in what we are doing to fight this illness that ambushed me last year. I have faith in Christ,” Chavez said, kissing a crucifix.

He vowed to recover from his bout with cancer so that he can continue advancing Venezuela's socialist “revolution.”