Chavez returns to international stage at Mercosur meeting

For the first time since the beginning of the year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez attends an international meeting, the Latin American states meeting, the Mercosur.

During the meeting of the Mercosur, he is expected to stress the importance of his country's recent integration into the organisation, which consists of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay. The meeting will thus allow him to improve the position of the country in the region.

Since June 2011, when he was diagnosed with cancer, Chavez has kept from the spotlight. The leftist leader has undergone a series of medical treatments, during which great concerns were raised regarding his shape and position.

The timing of his return to the international scene is not exactly surprising as he faces new elections soon.

Less than three months before the election, "Chavez must send concrete messages of his recuperation to erase any shadow of a doubt about his future," Luis Vicente Leon, the head of Venezuela's leading pollsters Datanalisis said.