Top news: Still battling complications from cancer surgery in Cuba, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will not return to his country in time to be sworn in for his fourth term at a scheduled Thursday inauguration, a delay that is likely to pitch Venezuela into a constitutional crisis.

In a statement read to the National Assembly Tuesday, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that "the medical team working to reestablish [Chavez's] health agrees that the postoperative recovery period should extend past Jan. 10, and so he will not be able to appear before the National Assembly on that date." In response, the legislative body approved an unlimited absence for the ailing Chavez.

Chavez has not been seen or heard from in nearly a month and is reportedly battling a respiratory infection stemming from an operation to treat cancer. In his absence, Chavez's allies have moved to consolidate control of the government. Earlier this week, the legislature elected Diosdado Cabello, a Chavez ally, as the head of the National Assembly. If Chavez is unable to return, Cabello will temporarily assume power and be charged with setting up new presidential elections.

The dispute now turns on two differing interpretations of the Venezuelan constitution. Chavez's allies claim that a provision of the constitution allowing the president to be sworn in before the supreme court as an alternative to the national legislature indicates that there is no hard deadline for the president to assume office. The opposition disputes that interpretation and has called for the country's supreme court to step in and settle the matter. "There is no monarchy here, and we aren't in Cuba," Henrique Capriles, a state governor who was defeated by Chavez at the polls in October, said Tuesday. 

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