Chavez body to be permanently displayed

Ariana Cubillos / AP

In this June 2, 2011 file photo, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, left, holds a crutch as he welcomes Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, not in picture, at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela.

Associated Press

Thursday, March 7, 2013 | 1:41 p.m.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela's acting president says Hugo Chavez's embalmed body will be permanently displayed in a glass casket so that "his people will always have him."

Vice President Nicolas Maduro says the remains will be put on permanent display at the Museum of the Revolution, close to the presidential palace where Chavez ruled for 14 years. Maduro says the president will lie in state first for at least another seven days.

A state funeral for Chavez attended by some 33 heads of government is scheduled to begin Friday morning. Tens of thousands have already filed past his glass-topped casket at a military academy following a seven-hour procession on Tuesday which took his body from the hospital where he died.