Chavez death: No alcohol in Venezuela for a week
Caracas, March 7: Venezuela will be observing seven days of mourning for late president Hugo Chavez and the Interior Ministry of the country has ordered a ban on sales and consumption of alcohol across the country for the seven days period of mourning.
The ban till March 12 is maintain normal conditions for holding a funeral ceremony for Chavez. There will also be a ban on carrying weapons.
Chavez, 58, died Tuesday following a two-year-long tough battle with cancer. His funeral will be held tomorrow (Friday March 8). Venezuelans filed past the open casket of Chavez as he lay in state on Thursday after throngs of weeping loyalists gave the firebrand leftist a rousing farewell on the streets.
Hundreds
of
thousands
waved
flags
and
chanted
"Chavez
lives"
as
his
hearse
crawled
across
the
capital
on
Wednesday
in
a
seven-hour
trip
from
the
hospital
where
he
died
to
the
academy
he
once
called
his
second
home.
The
coffin
was
then
placed
half-opened
in
the
hall,
surrounded
by
Chavez's
grieving
mother
Elena,
who
covered
her
face
with
a
white
handkerchief,
three
of
his
daughters,
son
Huguito
and
a
granddaughter,
some
choking
back
tears.
The
doors
were
opened
for
ordinary
Venezuelans,
who
stood
in
a
huge
line
to
pay
their
respects,
some
making
the
sign
of
the
cross,
others
in
uniform
giving
the
military
salute,
as
a
four-man
honor
guard
stood
by
stiffly.
As they mourn for their leader, Venezuelans have began to prepare for an election to succeed Chavez to run the oil-rich South American nation.
A new election is due to be called within what are sure to be 30 tense days.
"After Jesus Christ, there's Hugo Chavez," said Maria Alexandra, a 46-year-old mother of six who said she lived in poverty before Chavez.
"Before him, the government didn't care about us... Now children have everything," she said.
Others expressed hope that Chavez's self-styled "Bolivarian Revolution" -- based on using the country's vast oil wealth for housing, education and social programs -- would live on after him.
But in a country divided by Chavez's populist style, not everyone agreed on his legacy, with opposition supporters in better-off neighborhoods still angry.
OneIndia News