Chavez's Body to be Embalmed like Lenin, Mao Zedong
World | March 8, 2013, Friday| 1382 views
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Chavez was re-elected for a fourth term as president last October after saying he had recovered from his illness. Photo by EPA/BGNES
The body of late Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is to be embalmed and placed on permanent display, Vice-President Nicolas Maduro says.
Maduro said that Chavez's body would be embalmed "like Lenin and Mao Zedong", and put on display for at least another seven days.
The body will be moved to the Caracas military museum where in 1992 Chavez - as an army officer - was captured after leading a failed coup.
Maduro said the building will be converted into a new "museum of the revolution".
Chavez's supporters want him eventually interred in Venezuela's national Pantheon alongside Simon Bolivar, the 19th Century independence leader the late president claimed as his political inspiration.
However, Venezuela's constitution says people can only be admitted to the Pantheon 25 years after their death.
Chavez was re-elected for a fourth term as president last October after saying he had recovered from his illness.
He named Maduro as his preferred successor following the recurrence of his cancer.
Tags: Venezuela, president, Hugo Chavez
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