Crowds bid farewell to Chavez

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans were on the streets again on Friday at a funeral parade for Hugo Chavez amid opposition protests that the government is exploiting his death to win the election.

Chavez's remains were transported about 20 km through Caracas from an army academy to a military museum on a hillside where the former soldier launched his political career with a failed coup in 1992.

The events were the culmination of 10 days of official mourning in the South American OPEC nation led by the president for 14 years until his death from cancer.

A state funeral was held a week ago.

"You are a giant," his daughter Maria Gabriela said in an emotional religious service before the procession began.

"Fly freely and breathe deep with the winds of the hurricane. We will care for your fatherland and defend your legacy. You will never leave, your flame is in our hands."

Though his remains will for now be placed in the museum on the edge of the populous January 23 neighborhood, there is still doubt over his final resting place.

Parliament had been due to debate a motion this week to amend the Constitution so that Chavez's body could be buried in the National Pantheon, close to the remains of his idol and South American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

The Constitution states that honor can only be accorded to leaders 25 years after their death.

But the debate was delayed amid talk that Chavez's corpse might instead be taken to his hometown Sabaneta, in the Venezuelan "llanos", or plains, to fulfill his oft-stated wish to lie alongside the grandmother who raised him in a mud-floor home.

Time of grieving

"This is a time of grieving. My heart just shriveled up when I saw him in that room. But then I remember him with happiness for all that he has given me," said Lino Mejia, 72, who came on Saturday from Lara state in the west to bid farewell to Chavez, whose oil-funded social programs included heavy spending on housing and healthcare.

At the center of an imposing hall with towering columns, yellow brickwork and tile floors, Mejia and masses of other Chavez supporters had no choice but to settle for glimpsing at the monument from afar.

Friends and family joined government and army officials in surrounding the coffin as it arrived at Chavez's final resting place.

Reuters-AFP

(China Daily 03/18/2013 page12)