(MintPress) – “We have decided to prepare the body of our Comandante President, to embalm it so that it remains open for all time for the people. Just like Ho Chi Minh. Just like Lenin. Just like Mao Zedong,” said Venezuelan provisional President Nicolas Maduro on state television.
The announcement came just before the funeral for Chavez on Friday, an event that is expected to draw 2 million mourners to Caracas to pay respects to Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president for the past 14 years that took his citizens out of poverty.
The overwhelming number of people clamoring to see the late President was a driving force to permanently preserve Chavez’s body and display it at the Museum of the Revolution in Caracas.
Maduro also said that Chavez’s body will lie in the state for seven days at a military museum so people can continue to pay their respects to the leader.
Fifty-five heads of state or government, including Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Cuban President Raul Castro and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were among those gathered to pay their respects to Chavez, who died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. The former general was 58 years old.
Regional heads of state mourned the loss of Chavez, praising the late leader for helping to improve the whole of Latin American.
“Chavez allowed us to restore faith in Latin America regions, so that a profound transformation in the region can be carried out,” said President Rafael Correa of Ecuador.
Nicolas Maduro made the announcement while preparing to run in upcoming Presidential elections. He is expected to promote a similar Bolivarian economic platform during polls that will be held in the next 30 days. Chavez helped championed the mixed economic model that included land reforms, free markets and the nationalization of certain industries.
Maduro is expected to run against Henrique Capriles, a conservative politician who lost to Chavez in the October 2012 election. Capriles captured 44 percent of the vote, the best showing by an opposition politician challenging Chavez.
While street violence and restrictions on the free press were major problems during the Chavez administration, life for Venezuelans, especially those from impoverished backgrounds, improved markedly.
According to a comprehensive 2009 study conducted by Center for Economic and Policy Research, poverty in Venezuela dropped from 42.8 percent in 1999 to just 26 percent in 2009. Unemployment dropped from 11.3 percent to 7.8 percent over the same period.