On Friday, he asked the Venezuelan National Assembly for permission to continue his cancer treatment outside of the country and was unanimously granted it.

But opposition leaders argued it was unconstitutional for Chavez to continue to exercise executive authority from Cuba.

The 56-year-old firebrand leader was operated last month in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumor from his pelvic region. He remained on the Caribbean island for almost a month to recuperate before returning to Venezuela earlier this month.

Cuba, the Americas’ only one-party communist regime, is Chavez’s closest regional ally.