Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s allies staged a show of unity on Saturday, re-electing the ruling party’s Diosdado Cabello as parliamentary speaker, or leader of the legislature, while their president battles cancer in Cuba.
The closing of ranks by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) came as it emerged as all but certain that illness would keep Chavez from being sworn in to a new six-year term on Thursday as scheduled.
“The president will continue being president beyond Jan. 10, nobody should have any doubt about that,” Cabello said after his election, accusing the opposition of fomenting a coup d’etat.
Photo: AFP
Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro called the swearing-in a “formality” and said he too would stay on in office without taking any oath until there was an opportunity to do so.
Cabello’s re-election was intended in part to answer persistent rumors of a power struggle within the regime during Chavez’s more than three-week absence, the longest stretch in his 14-year presidency.
“We will never defraud the people and we will get on our knees to defend the proposal made by comandante Chavez, I swear it,” Cabello said as he took his oath of office.
Chavez’s health was invoked by both Chavistas and members of the opposition, who criticized the ruling party for refusing to engage in inclusive dialogue as the oil-rich country enters a period of high uncertainty.
“It is not only the head of state who is sick, the Republic is sick,” opposition deputy Hiran Gaviria said. “The public finances are exhausted, there are shortages, inflation, excessive indebtedness, personal insecurity.”
In a display of legislative muscle, ruling party deputies used their majority to elect an all-Chavista leadership, beginning with Cabello, a former military officer who is regarded as the country’s third-most powerful man.
Watching the vote and debate from the balcony of the chamber was Maduro, Chavez’s handpicked successor who has sought to squelch reports of a power struggle with Cabello.
Outside the National Assembly, hundreds of Chavistas, dressed in the flaming red of his socialist revolution, chanted for their cancer-stricken leader with almost religious fervor.
“I love him, I want him and I hope he recovers,” Maria Mateus said, chanting with friends outside the palatial Spanish colonial-style building. “Here the one who rules is Chavez, and the revolution.”
“And he will return! He will return! The comandante will return!” another group of supporters shouted.
Chavez, 58, is recovering in Havana from his fourth and most difficult round of cancer surgery, his condition clouded by serious complications that have raised doubts about his fitness to serve.
So far, he has refused to relinquish the office, leaving Maduro in charge of running the country without transferring the full powers of the presidency.
In a speech to supporters outside the National Assembly, Maduro said he would remain as vice president.
“I continue in office and some day when there’s an opportunity to swear me in — it’s a formality — it will be done,” he said.
On Friday, arguing for continuity, Maduro laid out a legal rationale for indefinitely delaying Chavez’s swearing-in without his giving up the powers of the presidency, even on a temporary basis.
The country’s main opposition coalition insists that Chavez must take at least a temporary leave if his health keeps him from taking the oath of office on Friday, as established by Venezuela’s constitution.
Under the constitution, new elections must be held within 30 days if the president dies or is permanently incapacitated either before he takes office or in the first four years of his six-year term.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues