Venezuelans mourn Hugo Chavez, prepare for funeral

Caracas – Venezuelans have begun seven days of national mourning after the announcement that their president, Hugo Chavez, died aged 58 after a long battle against cancer.

His coffin was taken on Wednesday from the military hospital where he died to a military academy he considered to be his second home.

Chavez’s body will lie in state at the tip of a grand esplanade until his state funeral on Friday.

Armed forces across the country fired a 21-gun salute in his honour. They will fire another cannon shot “every hour until his burial”, the armed forces said.

All schools and universities have been shut for the week.

Hundreds of people spent the night in front of his hospital, waving Venezuelan flags and chanting “We are all Chavez!”

A banner was hung the hospital fence, reading “Chavez lives, the battle continues!”

The country’s vice-president, Nicolas Maduro – tipped as a likely successor – broke the news of Chavez’s death on Tuesday night, prompting a wave of grief on the nation’s streets.

Chavez, a controversial figure and staunch critic of the US, was seriously ill with cancer for more than a year.

Latin American leaders are in Caracas to pay their respects – among them President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina, Jose Mujica of Uruguay and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Cuba and the Caribbean island of Dominica have declared periods of official mourning.

Another Chavez ally, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, also announced a day of mourning, describing him as a “martyr”.

The United Nations Security Council held a moment of silence Wednesday for Chavez. Cuba, home of Chavez’s mentor Fidel Castro, is observing two days of official mourning.

The U.S. Embassy in Caracas is closed until after the funeral. The U.S. delegation to the funeral has not yet been announced. President Barack Obama said he reaffirms his support for the Venezuelan people and is committed to polices promoting democracy and human rights.

Chavez, a staunch socialist, was elected president in 1998. He earned the enmity of the United States and others for such policies as nationalizing major companies and courting world leaders such as Fidel Castro, Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi.

The country’s opposition accused him of being a dictator. But millions of poor Venezuelans revered him for using the country’s vast oil wealth to give them access to low-cost food, free medical care and other social programs. However, experts say Chavez failed to control crime or use oil wealth to enrich the overall economy.

Timeline: Hugo Chavez

1954: Born 28 July in Sabaneta, Barinas state, the son of schoolteachers

1975: Graduates from Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences

1992: Leads doomed attempt to overthrow government of President Carlos Andres Perez, jailed for two years

1994: Relaunches his party as the Movement of the Fifth Republic

1999: Takes office after winning 1998 election

2002: Abortive coup. Returns to power after two days

2011: Reveals he is being treated for cancer

2012 (October): Re-elected for another six-year term

2012 (December): Has fourth cancer operation in Cuba

2013 (February): Returns to Venezuela to continue treatment

2013 (March): Death is announced by Venezuelan government