Chavez body on permanent display

Venezuela’s acting president has said 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 said the remains will be put on permanent display at the Museum of the Revolution, close to the presidential palace where Mr Chavez ruled for 14 years.

Mr Maduro said the president will lie in state first for at least another seven days.

A state funeral for Mr Chavez attended by some 33 heads of government is scheduled to begin tomorrow 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.