Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro said he would head back to Cuba on Friday to visit cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez, the day after a huge rally on what was to have been inauguration day.
Maduro said during a visit to the headquarters of state oil giant PDVSA that he would be “visiting the family, meeting with the medical team, visiting our comandante Chavez and presenting him with the good news of a nation at work.”
Electricity Minister Hector Navarro will serve as acting vice president in his absence, as he has done in the past.
Maduro did not say if he would meet with Argentine President Cristina Kirchner while in Havana. Kirchner arrived in the Cuban capital earlier in the day to visit Chavez and offer her support.
Maduro, who Chavez has annointed as his political heir, said he would tell the president about the massive rally held in central Caracas on Thursday, when Chavez was meant to take the oath of office for a new term.
Instead, thousands of supporters fervently swore “absolute loyalty” to their charismatic leader, who has held a vice-like grip over Venezuelan politics for nearly 14 years and is currently recovering from his fourth cancer surgery in Cuba.
Several regional leaders turned up for the rally, including Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Uruguay’s Jose Mujica.
The Supreme Court upheld a decision to indefinitely postpone the 58-year-old Chavez’s swearing-in ceremony and said his existing administration could remain in office until he is well enough to take the oath.
It was the last legal hurdle to a government plan for resolving the vacuum created by Chavez’s illness that met fierce resistance from the opposition, which had argued it was unconstitutional.
Chavez was re-elected in October.
Venezuela VP to head back to Cuba to visit Chavez
