World leaders were in Caracas for Hugo Chavez’s state funeral on Friday, following which the Venezuelan leader’s hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, was to be sworn-in as interim president.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who often referred to Chavez as his brother, was joined in the Venezuelan capital by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Cuban President Raul Castro.
Chavez, 58, died on Tuesday at a military hospital in Caracas after a long battle with cancer. He had not been seen in public for three months after his fourth surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11.
Now, more than two million people were hoping to see him, Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said, as his body lies in state in an open casket at the Military Academy.
Chavez’s body will be embalmed and publicly displayed in the military museum for at least seven days, Maduro said, much like Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, the Russian and Chinese communist revolutionaries, so that a greater number of people can bid farewell to their leader of 14 years.
The government will consider the possibility of giving Chavez a final resting place at the National Pantheon, Maduro said, alongside 144 dignitaries – including Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar, whom Chavez claimed as his ideological father.
On Thursday, presidents Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Jose Mujica of Uruguaypaid their respects at the academy. Maduro said up to 55 foreign heads of state or foreign ministers would attend the funeral. Parliament was due to meet after the funeral for Maduro’s swearing-in.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everydayChavez, 58, died on Tuesday at a military hospital in Caracas after a long battle with cancer. He had not been seen in public for three months after his fourth surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11.
Now, more than two million people were hoping to see him, Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said, as his body lies in state in an open casket at the Military Academy.
Chavez’s body will be embalmed and publicly displayed in the military museum for at least seven days, Maduro said, much like Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, the Russian and Chinese communist revolutionaries, so that a greater number of people can bid farewell to their leader of 14 years.
The government will consider the possibility of giving Chavez a final resting place at the National Pantheon, Maduro said, alongside 144 dignitaries – including Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar, whom Chavez claimed as his ideological father.
On Thursday, presidents Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Jose Mujica of Uruguaypaid their respects at the academy. Maduro said up to 55 foreign heads of state or foreign ministers would attend the funeral. Parliament was due to meet after the funeral for Maduro’s swearing-in.
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