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| A Venezuelan embassy worker holds up a framed image of Venezuela's ailing President Hugo Chavez during the monthly Catholic service devoted to the sick at the Church of Our Lady of Regla, in Regla, across the bay from Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2013. Venezuela's government said Monday, Chavez is in a "stable situation" in a Cuban hospital receiving treatment due to a severe respiratory infection. The update came as other government officials reiterated their stance that the president need not be sworn in for a new term as scheduled this Thursday and could instead have his inauguration at a later date. |
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez won't be able to attend his scheduled swearing-in this week, Venezuela's government announced Tuesday, confirming suspicions that the leader's illness will keep him in a Cuban hospital past the key date.
Vice
President Nicolas Maduro broke the news in a letter to National Assembly
President Diosdado Cabello, saying on the recommendation of Chavez's
medical team, his recovery process "should be extended beyond Jan. 10"
and for that reason he won't be able to attend Thursday's scheduled
inauguration.
Maduro said Chavez was invoking a
provision in the constitution allowing him to be sworn in before the
Supreme Court at a "later date." Cabello announced he had received the
request during a legislative session.
Tensions
between the government and opposition have been building in a
constitutional 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 leader Henrique Capriles
said earlier Tuesday that Chavez's current term constitutionally ends
Thursday and that the Supreme Court should rule in the matter.
Other opposition leaders have argued that the inauguration cannot legally be put off and that the National
Assembly president should take over as
interim president if Chavez hasn't returned from Cuba on inauguration
day.
"The Supreme Court has to take a position
on what the text of the constitution says," said Capriles, who lost to
Chavez in presidential elections three months ago. "There is no monarchy
here, and we aren't in Cuba."
However,
Capriles said he saw no reason to bring a formal challenge to the
Supreme Court because it was obliged to issue a ruling on the dispute.
While
leaders of both pro- and anti-Chavez camps say they don't expect
violence to break out Thursday, the dispute could lead to opposition
questions about the legitimacy of government officials serving past the
scheduled inauguration date.
The Venezuelan
Constitution says the presidential oath should be taken before lawmakers
in the National Assembly on Jan. 10 but adds that the president may
also take the oath before the Supreme Court if he's unable to be sworn
in before the assembly. Government officials argue that clause does not
explicitly mention a date, though opponents say it clearly refers to the
Jan. 10 deadline.
Maduro said in his letter
that Chavez's condition was an "irrefutable unexpected reason" that made
it impossible for Chavez to attend the scheduled inauguration.
The
announcement set off an impassioned debate in the National Assembly.
Opposition lawmaker Omar Barboza dismissed Maduro's proposal and urged
Chavez's allies to accept Cabello as interim president while Chavez
recovers, saying that was to avoid an "institutional crisis."
Barboza
said it's clear that a "temporary absence" should now be declared,
which would give the president 90 days to recover, which could be
renewed for another 90 days.
Some lawmakers
called for a medical team to be formed to determine Chavez's state. Some
also questioned why the letter was signed by the vice president rather
than Chavez himself.
"Who's governing
Venezuela? In Venezuela, Havana is governing, and that's the problem we
have," opposition congressman Julio Borges said during the debate.
Barboza
said that if Chavez's allies continue with their stance, the opposition
will be forced to "convoke the people of Venezuela to re-establish the
validity of the constitution." He didn't elaborate.
Maduro
has called the swearing-in a "formality" and said the opposition is
erroneously interpreting the constitution. Chavez has said that if he's
unable to continue on as president, Maduro should take his place and run
in an election to replace him.
Capriles
noted, however, that Maduro "wasn't elected" to continue leading a
government in Chavez's absence into a new term. "If Maduro wants to be
president, it's not through that way," Capriles said.
He added Tuesday that he has spoken with members of the military, and that they have told him "we are with the constitution."
"The
Armed Force also has a role to play to play here ... of respecting the
constitution," Capriles said, without elaborating, while using the
military's formal name.
Jorge Rodriguez, a
Caracas district mayor and campaign manager in recent elections, accused
the opposition of fomenting a "conspiracy" against Chavez's government.
He insisted that Chavez remains president despite his health problems
and pointed out that the National Assembly had granted the president
permission to travel to Cuba for his operation.
The
government had said on Monday that Chavez was in a "stable situation"
in a Cuban hospital receiving treatment due to a severe respiratory
infection. The government says he's coping with "respiratory
deficiency," but hasn't said how severe it is.
Government
officials called for Chavez's supporters to gather at the presidential
palace on Thursday, and said some Latin American heads of state plan to
attend.
Bolivia's government confirmed that President Evo Morales would travel to Caracas.
Uruguayan
President Jose Mujica also plans to fly to Caracas on Wednesday
morning, Deputy Foreign Relations Minister Roberto Conde told local
station Radio Uruguay on Tuesday.
Capriles
urged Latin American leaders not to visit, asking them to instead demand
that the Venezuelan Constitution be upheld. He said presidents of other
countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Colombia should also take such a
stance.
The opposition leader said he won't call for protests on inauguration day.
"What
I won't do is put people to fight against people. Don't count on us,"
Capriles told reporters. "Our country doesn't need hate. Our country
doesn't need fights."
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."
