Hugo Chavez To Miss Inauguration, Government Says
Baku, January 10 (AZERTAC). Venezuelan lawmakers voted on Tuesday to postpone the inauguration of ailing President Hugo Chavez for his new term, prompting complaints from opponents who called it a violation of the constitution.
Chavez`s congressional allies, who hold a majority of seats in the National Assembly, agreed with a government proposal for Chavez to be sworn in at a later date before the Supreme Court. While pro-Chavez lawmakers approved the plan with a show of hands, opponents condemned the action as illegal.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro broke the news that Chavez would not be able to attend Thursday`s scheduled inauguration in a letter to National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, confirming suspicions that Chavez`s battle with cancer and a related respiratory infection would keep him in a Cuban hospital past the key date.
Maduro said that on the recommendation of Chavez`s medical team, his recovery process "should be extended beyond Jan. 10."
The vice president said Chavez was invoking a provision in the constitution allowing him to be sworn in before the Supreme Court at a "later date." The opposition disputed that argument and appealed to the Organization of American States, but did not appear to have other immediate routes to block the government`s plan.
Tensions between the government and opposition have been building for days in the dispute over whether the ailing president`s swearing-in can legally be postponed. The president underwent his fourth cancer-related surgery in Cuba last month and hasn`t spoken publicly in a month.
Opposition coalition leader Ramon Guillermo Aveledo wrote to Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza on Monday explaining the opposition`s concerns. Aveledo said in the letter that if Chavez doesn`t appear on inauguration day and there is no declaration of a temporary absence of the president, "a serious violation of the constitutional order will have been committed."
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