Supporters of ailing Hugo Chavez rally at alternative inauguration
Published on Thursday January 10, 2013
Ian James and Christopher Toothaker
The Associated Press
CARACAS, VENEZUELA—Tens of thousands of chanting supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied outside his presidential palace Thursday in an exuberant symbolic inauguration for a leader too ill to return home for the real thing.
Chavez to miss swearing-in
Backers wearing T-shirts with the slogan “I am Chavez” waved flags while upbeat music from Chavez's last presidential campaign blared from speakers, proclaiming: “Chavez, heart of the people!”
The government organized the unusual show of support for the cancer-stricken leader on the streets outside Miraflores Palace on what was supposed to be his inauguration day. With Chavez out of sight in a Cuban hospital fighting a severe respiratory infection more than a month after cancer surgery, his swearing-in ceremony has been indefinitely postponed, despite opposition complaints.
“We came to show support, so he knows his nation is with him,” said Anny Marquez, a secretary and voluntary member of a civilian militia that Chavez has built in recent years. “We're with him in the good times as well as the bad.”
Some wore paper cutouts of the yellow, blue and red presidential sash to show they were symbolically swearing in themselves in Chavez's place.
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