Chavez swearing-in can be delayed: VP

Venezuela’s vice president says if President Hugo Chavez does not attend his swearing-in ceremony for another six-year term next week, he could be sworn in by the Supreme Court at a later time.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that “The formality of his swearing-in can be resolved before the Supreme Court of Justice, at the time (the court) deems in coordination with the head of state, Commander Hugo Chavez.”

The Venezuelan president underwent a fourth round of cancer surgery in Cuba’s capital, Havana, on December 11, 2012, and has a scheduled inauguration for a third presidential term on January 10.

This comes as some opposition leaders argue that if Chavez does not return to the capital, Caracas, by Thursday, the president of the National Assembly should take over as interim president.

The official also highlighted that the inauguration date is not a hard deadline and more time should be given to Chavez to pull through following his cancer surgery.

“He has a right to rest and tranquility, and to recuperate. The president right now is the exercising president. He has his government formed.”

Under Venezuela’s constitution, new elections must be held within 30 days if the president is unable to take the oath of office.

Meanwhile, reading a part of the constitution, which elaborates on procedures for declaring an “absolute absence” of the president that necessitates new elections within a month, Maduro said that “none of these grounds can be raised by the Venezuelan opposition.”

On January 3, Venezuela’s information minister warned that the opposition and the media are taking advantage of the health of the president to wage a “psychological war” to destabilize the country.

Ernesto Villegas said in a televised statement that the government “warns the Venezuelan people about the psychological war that the transnational media complex has unleashed around the health of the chief of state, with the ultimate goal of destabilizing the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”