Venezuela prays for Hugo Chavez health

Venezuela’s cabinet ministers got together to pray for the recovery of President Hugo Chavez, who is in Cuba recovering from cancer operation.

They took part in a mass held at the presidential palace in Caracas.

Official New Year celebrations were called off on Sunday after Vice-President Nicolas Maduro announced that Hugo Chavez had suffered new complications.

The 58-year-old president is due to be sworn in for a new term on January 10th.

“The government is united, we are all praying for his health to recover so he can return to our country,” said Federal District governor Jacqueline Farias.

Elsewhere in Caracas, at the San Francis church, some 300 people attended another mass for Hugo Chavez.

Correspondents in Caracas describe the end-of-year atmosphere as subdued, yet calm.

Hugo Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, was elected in October for a fourth term in office.

Earlier this year, he said he had been cleared of a cancer diagnosed in 2011 and was fit to serve out his six-year term.

But on December 11, Hugo Chavez went through his fourth cancer operation in Cuba.

It is now three weeks since Hugo Chavez has been seen or heard from in person.

There are also many questions about what will happen on January 10, when Hugo Chavez is due to be re-inaugurated.

National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello recently said that the swearing-in ceremony would be delayed in the case of Hugo Chavez’s absence.

But the opposition says such move would be unconstitutional.

The Venezuelan constitutions states that a new election should be called in 30 days should the president not be fit enough to attend his inauguration, the opposition argues.

Vice-president Nicolas Maduro went to Cuba on Saturday to meet Hugo Chavez.

In a televised announcement from Havana on Sunday, he said that the president had “suffered new complications” and that his health state remained “delicate”.

“We have been informed of new complications that arose as a consequence of the respiratory infection we already knew about,” he said.

He added that the treatment was “not without risk.”

Following Nicolas Maduro’s announcement, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas appeared in a special programme on Venezuelan TV, calling on Venezuelans not to believe rumors about the president’s health.

Late on Sunday, Ernesto Villegas said a government-organized New Year’s Eve concert in central Caracas had been cancelled and he urged Venezuelans to pray for President Hugo Chavez.

Hugo Chavez’s career:

• Born in 1954
• 1992: Leads a failed coup attempt against President Carlos Perez
• 1999: Takes office after winning election
• 2006: Wins another six-year term as president
• 2011: Reveals he is being treated for cancer and has two operations in Cuba
• 2012: Has two more operations
• October 2012: Re-elected for another term as president

yeV-DfZIY7U