Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and now Hugo Chavez. The late leader’s supporters have put him on a pedestal long provided for the world’s great leftist revolutionaries by saying they will embalm his body for perpetual display.
Hugo Chavez’s body will be preserved and forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace from which he ruled for 14 years, his successor announced Thursday in a Caribbean version of the treatment given Communist revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh.
Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro will be officially sworn in as interim president after Hugo Chavez’s state funeral Friday and he will then call for elections, the national assembly speaker said.
President Hugo Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela’s presidential guard said late Wednesday.
By the hundreds of thousands, Hugo Chavez’s tearful supporters carried their dead president through streets still plastered with his smiling image, an epic farewell to a larger-than-life leader remembered simply as “our commander.”
Venezuelans stripped of their larger-than-life leader awoke to an uncertain future on Wednesday, with jittery throngs flocking to supermarkets and gas stations to stock up, and anti-American vitriol infusing official statements and the chants of the street.
Even in death, Hugo Chavez’s orders are being followed. The man he anointed to succeed him, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, will continue to run Venezuela as interim president and be the governing socialists’ candidate in an election to be called within 30 days.
Venezuela on Tuesday accused its enemies of causing President Hugo Chavez’s cancer and expelled two US military officers for an alleged plot to destabilize the nation. (Chavez died Tuesday at 4:25 p.m. local time.)
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez died Tuesday, Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced, shortly after Caracas revealed that the cancer-stricken leftist icon was suffering from a severe infection.
Hundreds of Venezuelans held a candlelight vigil Friday for President Hugo Chavez, praying for their leader while he remained in a hospital undergoing cancer treatment.
Venezuela’s government announced Friday that it is devaluing the country’s currency, a long-anticipated change expected to push up prices in the heavily import-reliant economy.
Venezuela’s foreign minister says he met and spoke with President Hugo Chavez in Cuba, where the ailing socialist leader is convalescing following cancer-related surgery.
Venezuela’s vice president said Friday that President Hugo Chavez could be sworn in by the Supreme Court later on if he’s not able to take the oath of office next week before lawmakers because of his struggle with cancer.
