Venezuela faced growing uncertainty yesterday as President Hugo Chavez fought “severe” complications in Cuba following cancer surgery just four days before he is scheduled to be sworn in for an unprecedented third term in office.

Chavez was re-elected on October 7 despite his debilitating battle with cancer and the strongest opposition challenge yet to his 14-year rule in Venezuela, an Opec member with the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

But the Government said last week that since undergoing surgery in December in Havana, the President has developed a “serious pulmonary infection” that has led to a “respiratory insufficiency.”

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.

And 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 January 10 as established by Venezuela’s Constitution.

However, on Saturday, Chavez’s allies staged a show of unity, re-electing the ruling party’s Diosdado Cabello as parliamentary speaker.

The closing of ranks by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) came as it emerged as all but certain that illness will keep Chavez from being sworn in to a new six-year term on Thursday as scheduled.

“The President will continue being President beyond January 10, nobody should have any doubt about that,” said Cabello after his election, accusing the opposition of fomenting a “coup d’etat.”

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 rumours of a power struggle within the regime during Chavez’s more than three-week absence, the longest stretch in his 14-year presidency.

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,” said opposition deputy Hiran Gaviria.