(CNN) -- Doctors in Havana, Cuba, completed a six-hour surgical procedure on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday evening in a televised address. The state-run Venezuelan Television's website said in a headline, "The operation was a success." Maduro thanked Venezuelans who had prayed "that this operation would culminate correctly and in a successful manner." Afterward, Chavez was taken to his room to begin his post-operative recovery, which will last several days, Maduro said. During the operation, surgeons removed a lesion that had appeared in the same place as previous lesions, Maduro said from the presidential palace in Venezuela.
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NEW: state-run media says the operation is a success
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Official says Chavez is absolutely confident he will overcome his illness
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"It's a very delicate operation," Ecuador's president says
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Analyst: Some speculate Chavez's health problems are not life-threatening
Read more: @placeholder's Chavez arrives in Cuba for cancer surgery
@placeholder's constitution specifies that when a president dies, the vice president assumes the presidency until new elections can be held.
"My firm opinion, as clear as the full moon -- irrevocable, absolute, total -- is ... that you elect Nicolas Maduro as president," @placeholder said, waving a copy of the Venezuelan constitution as he spoke.