Last week, on March 5th, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez was announced to be dead by the Vice-President Nicolas Maduro on national TV. Venezuela’s leader was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, and went to Cuba to have his fourth operation in mid-December. Since then, he never appeared or talked to the public, which helped feed rumors about his death.
At approximately 6 p.m. local time, along with members of the National Assembly and the Armed Forces, Maduro appeared on national television with crying eyes to confirm what had up until that point been a rumor the whole day. “With all the pain, we announce to the world, that as of 4:25 p.m., the President Hugo Rafael Chavez has died,” Maduro said.
At the beginning, the body was going to be buried in his hometown as Chavez had expressed a few times in the past, but later it was announced that he was going to be embalmed in order to maintain the body and keep it in a crystal box like Stalin did.
On Friday, 33 Presidents, princes and important politicians from other countries attended an Act of the State in Caracas, where American activist leader Jesse Jackson gave a speech to say goodbye to Chavez. Other famous people part of the event included Orchestra Director Dudamel, F1 driver Pastor Maldonado, Olympic Gold medalist Limardo, and the American actor and Chavez’s friend Sean Penn (a well-known socialist supporter.)
Christopher Hetzler, sophomore at N.C. State, said “Venezuela has been handed an opportunity and now they can choose if they want a change or be more isolated if they decide to continue with the socialism.”
The constitution says that elections must be held in a span of 30 days, and they are already settled to be held April 14th, where Nicolas Maduro, appointed by Chavez to be his successor, and Henrique Capriles (governor of Miranda and candidate who carried with 7 million votes during the elections in October) will face off for the Presidency.
