Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez remained on his sickbed in Cuba on Thursday, Jan 10 while supporters planned to rally in his honor on the day he should have been sworn in for a new six-year term in the South American OPEC nation, Reuters reported.

The postponement of the inauguration, a first in Venezuelan history, has laid bare the gravity of Chavez's condition after complications from a fourth cancer operation in his pelvic area.

It has also left his chosen heir, Vice President Nicolas Maduro - a former bus driver who shares his boss's radical socialist views - in charge of day-to-day government until there is clarity over whether Chavez will recover or not.

The president, whose legendary energy and garrulous dominance of the airwaves had often made him seem omnipresent in Venezuela since 1999, has not been seen in public nor heard from since his surgery on December 11.