Mon, Jan 07, 2013 page1

• Chavez’s allies close ranks amid his health crisis

  FIRM GRIP: The re-election of parliamentary speaker Diosdado Cabello served in part to dispel rumors of a power struggle within the Venezuelan ruling party

  • AFP, CARACAS
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  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.

  

  Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gather outside the National Assembly in Caracas on Saturday.

  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.
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