Venezuela: Constitution Said to Permit Chávez to Take Oath After Term Starts

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/world/americas/venezuela-constitution-said-to-permit-chavez-to-take-oath-after-term-starts.html

Version 0 of 1.

President Hugo Chávez can be sworn in after the start of his new term, which is set by the Constitution for Jan. 10, Vice President Nicolás Maduro said Friday night. It was the clearest indication yet from the government of how it plans to handle the increasingly likely possibility that Mr. Chávez will be unable to return before then from Cuba, where he had cancer surgery last month and is said to be gravely ill. Because Mr. Chávez was re-elected, his presidency will continue uninterrupted even if he is not sworn in on the specified date, Mr. Maduro said as he held a tiny copy of the Constitution in a television broadcast. He accused members of the political opposition of trying to overthrow the government because of their insistence that Mr. Chávez’s absence on Jan. 10 would require the head of the National Assembly to temporarily assume the presidency — even though the Assembly leader and Mr. Chávez both belong to the United Socialist Party.