Source: BBC
Venezuela has announced seven days of mourning for Hugo Chavez, who has died aged 58, after 14 years as president.
Hundreds of Mr Chavez’s supporters took to the streets of Caracas to express their grief.
Mr Chavez had been seriously ill with cancer for more than a year.
A self-proclaimed revolutionary, Hugo Chavez was a controversial figure in Venezuela and on the world stage. A staunch critic of the US, he inspired a left-wing revival across Latin America.
Hundreds of supporters started gathering around the hospital where the president had died and in central Caracas to mourn Mr Chavez together.
Many had tears in their eyes. Some hugged each other. Most gathered sombrely to share their memories of the president.
For many, it was like having lost a family member.
“A great leader has left us, a father. A man that taught us how to walk down the path of revolution,” said Ali Dominguez, a student.
But In Los Palos Grandes neighbourhood, inhabited by wealthier pro-opposition people, streets were already deserted in the early evening.
People took to Twitter to express their sentiments.
His body will be taken in a procession to the Military Academy in Caracas where it will lie in state until a state funeral on Friday. All schools and universities have been shut for the week.
Caracas was quiet following the news of Mr Chavez’s death, with many shops and businesses shutting. Crowds of supporters gathered outside the Caracas hospital where he died, chanting “We are all Chavez!”
Mr Chavez’s illness prevented him from taking the oath of office after he was re-elected for a fourth term in October.
Categories: Americas, Venezuelan
The three leaders of the contemporary world, Fedal Castro of Cuba, Venezuelian President Chavez, and the President of Iran, Ahmadinezad knew it well and the courage to stand up and were bold enough to handle/tackle the Western Capitalist’s brute methods of world domination and selfish greedy lust of occupation of global natural resources and these three un-matched leaders, were a source of strength to the third world countries. Alas! one of them Mr Chavez has left this mundane world after 14 years rule with its world-wide impacts. The world will never the same without Hugo Chavez. I share the grief of the Latin American people and wish them all well in the post-Chavez era.