CARACAS (Reuters) - The Venezuelan government will publish photographs of Hugo Chavez on Friday, the information minister said, in what would be the first view of the president since he had cancer surgery in Cuba on December 11.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas made the announcement on Twitter, adding that a communique on the 58-year-old socialist leader's condition would also be read shortly.

Chavez has not been seen in public since he went to Havana for the operation on December 11, his fourth surgery in 18 months for cancer that was first diagnosed in mid-2011.

On Wednesday, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said the socialist leader was undergoing "complex" alternative treatments, but did not give details.

Chavez has never said what type of cancer he is suffering from, and critics have accused the government of secrecy over his condition.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Vicki Allen)