video transcript

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro inaugurates a chapel in a military hospital in Caracas on Friday. It's in this hospital that ailing President Hugo Chavez is being treated for cancer. Maduro says Chavez is doing well and blamed the United States for recent rumors that Chavez is near death. (SOUNDBITE)(English) VENEZUELAN VICE PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO, SAYING: "They're part of a wing of the imperial power of the United States, that's the wing that has made more disasters and wars in our continent." Chavez has not appeared in public since a December 11 cancer surgery in Cuba. Maduro said that Chavez is strong and in good spirits but was undergoing intense treatment. During his 14-year rule, Chavez has been critical of the U.S. and has financed aid programmes for leftist governments like Cuba and Bolivia. Chavez has never revealed just what type of cancer he is suffering from.