CARACAS (AP) ― President Hugo Chavez’s new complications after cancer surgery prompted his closest allies to call for Venezuelans to pray for him on Monday, presenting an increasingly bleak outlook and prompting growing speculation about whether the ailing leader has much longer to live.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro looked weary and spoke with a solemn expression as he announced in a televised address from Havana on Sunday that Chavez now confronts “new complications’’ due to a respiratory infection nearly three weeks after his operation. He described Chavez’s condition as delicate.

The streets of Caracas were abuzz on Monday with talk of Chavez’s increasingly tough fight, while the news topped the front pages of the country’s newspapers.

“He’s history now,’’ said Cesar Amaro, a street vendor selling newspapers and snacks at a kiosk in downtown Caracas. He motioned to a daily on the rack showing side-by-side photos of Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, and said politics will now turn to them.

In Bolivar Plaza in downtown Caracas, Chavez’s supporters strummed guitars and read poetry in his honor on New Year’s Eve. They sang along with a recording of the president belting out the national anthem.