As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez battles a lung infection that a government spokesman said late Thursday was “severe,” top officials appear to be planning for the prospect that their president-elect might not be around for his Jan. 10 inauguration to an unprecedented fourth term.

But because the country’s constitution requires the inauguration of a president-elect to take place on Venezuelan soil, even if Chavez, 58, pulls through there’s the question of whether he would be well enough to travel from Havana, where he underwent a fourth surgical procedure for cancer on Dec. 11, to his homeland in order to take the oath next week.

http://www.ibtimes.com/venezuelas-constitution-requires-ailing-chavez-be-caracas-thursday-993536