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Venezuelan pro-Chavez rally marks missed inauguration | Venezuelan pro-Chavez rally marks missed inauguration |
(about 11 hours later) | |
Crowds of supporters of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez have rallied in Caracas to show their allegiance to the cancer-stricken leader on the day he was due to be inaugurated for a fourth term. | |
Speaking outside the presidential palace, Vice-President Nicolas Maduro led thousands of people in an oath of "absolute loyalty" to President Chavez. | |
The swearing-in ceremony has been indefinitely postponed. | The swearing-in ceremony has been indefinitely postponed. |
Mr Chavez, 58, is in hospital in Cuba after undergoing cancer surgery. | Mr Chavez, 58, is in hospital in Cuba after undergoing cancer surgery. |
Supporters, many with their faces painted in the colours of the Venezuelan flag, listened as leaders from the region, including Uruguay's Jose Mujica and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, praised President Chavez's work. | |
Continued uncertainty | |
Fighter jets performed a fly-past to the delight of the crowds gathered outside the Miraflores presidential palace. | |
Opposition parties have called for a counter-demonstration on 23 January, the anniversary of the removal from power of Venezuelan military ruler Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958. | |
President Chavez's health continues to be "in a complex and difficult situation", Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Thursday without giving details. | |
In October, President Chavez was comfortably re-elected to another six-year term in office with 54% of the vote. | |
Two months later, he announced the cancer he had been treated for before, and which he had said he had been cured of, had returned. | |
He underwent cancer surgery on 11 December in Cuba and has not been or heard in public since. | |
On Tuesday, the National Assembly voted to give the ailing leader as much time as he needed to recover. | |
Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales said Mr Chavez could take the oath of office at a later date, adding that Mr Chavez's re-election had guaranteed "continuity" in government. | Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales said Mr Chavez could take the oath of office at a later date, adding that Mr Chavez's re-election had guaranteed "continuity" in government. |
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said the uncertainties thrown up by President Chavez's absence had not been ended by the court ruling. | |
Are you in Venezuela? What is your reaction to President Chavez missing his swearing-in? Send us your comments using the form below. | Are you in Venezuela? What is your reaction to President Chavez missing his swearing-in? Send us your comments using the form below. |
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