CARACAS: With President Hugo Chavez ailing and absent, Venezuela’s leftist government launches a new presidential term on Thursday with a display of popular support on the day he was to be inaugurated.

Leaders of other leftist Latin American government also began arriving in Caracas to pay tribute to Chavez, 58, who has not be seen in public since he underwent cancer surgery a month ago in Havana.

“Tomorrow we’re going to have a grand event in homage of President Chavez. We are all going to swear in everyone with this constitution,” said Vice President Nicolas Maduro.

The military announced it was reinforcing security in the city and at other strategic points to ensure the day was observed peacefully.

The Supreme Court cleared the cancer-stricken president to indefinitely postpone his re-inauguration and said his existing administration could remain in office until he is well enough to take the oath.

The top court’s seven magistrates—all appointed by the Chavez-controlled National Assembly—unanimously ruled that the delay was constitutional.

It was the last legal hurdle to a government plan for resolving the vacuum created by Chavez’s illness that met fierce resistance from the opposition, which had argued it was unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, Henrique Capriles, who ran unsuccessfully against Chavez in October presidential elections, accepted the unanimous ruling as “binding” but said it did not end the uncertainties facing the country.

Maduro, meanwhile, welcomed the court ruling as “a sentence for peace, for justice, for stability” and invited Venezuelans to turn out for a huge rally on Thursday in support of the absent Chavez.

He also highlighted the expressions of support he had received from other leaders, including Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica was the first foreign president to arrive here for show of support.

Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe, and Foreign Ministers Hector Timerman of Argentina and Ricardo Patino of Ecuador also have confirmed their attendance.

In Ecuador, President Rafael Correa said the Venezuelan leader’s absence would be a “blow” for Latin America.

Capriles, who had urged Latin leaders not to attend what was a political event, said he was pleased that most presidents from the region were not coming.

Chavez, who is recovering from a fourth round of cancer surgery in Havana, will be marking a full month since he has been seen in public, the longest stretch of his 14 years in power.

The government has said that he is recovering from complications from surgery, most recently a severe pulmonary infection that had resulted in a “respiratory insufficiency.”

After days of suspense, the government confirmed on Tuesday that Chavez was too sick to return to Caracas for his scheduled swearing-in and would take the oath of office at a later date before the Supreme Court.

The Chavez-controlled assembly approved the open-ended absence of the president, who has dominated the country personally and politically since coming to power in 1999.