CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition said today President Hugo Chavez’s prolonged convalescence from cancer in Cuba put the country’s security and sovereignty at risk and it stepped up calls for him to delegate his powers.
“It’s clear Chavez does not have the capacity to fully exercise his power … . This is a very dangerous, nefarious precedent,” Roberto Enriquez, national president of the COPEI Christian Democrat opposition party, told reporters.
The 56-year-old’s cancer, which the charismatic socialist leader revealed on Thursday in a televised speech from Havana, has convulsed politics in South America’s biggest oil exporter ahead of a presidential election next year.
“The security of the state cannot be handled from outside the national territory … . Affairs of state are being discussed in foreign government installations,” COPEI’s Enriquez said, adding that the situation put the country’s security and sovereignty at risk.
Vice President Elias Jaua and Venezuela’s military chiefs have rejected calls for any temporary delegation of Chavez’s powers. They argue the National Assembly dominated by the president’s supporters has already constitutionally approved his absence.
Chavez’s illness has underlined the lack of an obvious successor to the populist Venezuelan leader whose personalized style of government has dominated the OPEC country since 1999.
Chavez’s armed forces, purged over the years of critics and opponents, have been a bulwark of support to his left-leaning “Bolivarian Revolution” and Defense Minister Carlos Mata Figueroa repeated a pledge of loyalty today.
“The soldiers of the homeland who are the blood, sap and soul of the people express our deepest loyalty to the Commander in Chief and revolutionary government,” Mata said at a military ceremony that should have been attended by Chavez.
Neither Chavez nor his government has announced a firm date for his return, fueling conjecture about what kind of cancer he has and how long it could take him to recover. Media reports have speculated he has either colon or prostate cancer.
Analysts say any diminishing of Chavez’s visibility or volubility could reduce his ability to rally support for the 2012 election.
“The revolution and the new socialism are words that without President Chavez have little meaning for a broad number of people, with many periphery supporters likely to shift towards the opposition,” global banking group RBS said in a research note.
With polls showing the popularity of Chavez’s government being eroded by economic woes, high crime rates and problems like chronic power outages, next year’s vote is likely to be crucial for Chavez in his long career marked by a string of ballot victories and the projection of his leftist policies around the world.
“We have absolute faith and confidence in God … that Hugo Chavez will be the candidate of the Bolivarian Revolution, of the people and patriots of Venezuela, and that he will carry on being president beyond 2012,” Jaua said on Friday.
