Story highlights Funeral includes traditional music, honor guards 
 
 Vice President Nicolas Maduro gives an impassioned speech 
 
 Maduro will be sworn in Friday as interim president 
 
 Chavez will be laid to rest at a military museum, where Venezuelans can visit 
 
 Hugo Chavez was known to break out into song during his long-winding speeches, and fittingly, traditional Venezuelan llanera music filled the space where his funeral was held. 
 
 Chavez, who died Tuesday at age 58, was a polarizing figure in his country. But his followers revered him, and his funeral Friday in Caracas reflected that status. 
 
 There were 32 heads of state in attendance, and all of them were called, in groups of eight, to flank the Venezuelan president's casket and observe a moment of silence as honor guards. 
 
 Venezuelan standouts in the arts and sports likewise surrounded the deceased leader. 
 
 Chavez left behind a mixed legacy: He is credited with putting the nation's poor at the center of his policies, but also had an authoritarian streak that garnered criticism from defenders of human rights and press freedom. 
 
 The turnout of foreign leaders and thousands of mourners who waited hours for a chance to view Chavez is a testament to the role he played in the country, the Rev. Mario Moronta said. 
 
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 Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who will be sworn in as interim president later Friday, laid a replica of the sword that South American hero Simon Bolivar used on top of Chavez's flag-draped casket. 
 
 Tributes to Chavez were also paid in Cuba, where the military made a 21-gun salute from the La Cabana Fortress overlooking Havana. Military officers placed roses in front of a picture of Chavez. Venezuela and Cuba maintain close military ties, and Cuba sent hundreds of military and intelligence advisers to aid Chavez while he was president. 
 
 Chavez was known for his anti-American rhetoric and allied himself with others at odds with the United States. 
 
 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended and kissed Chavez's casket. 
 
 "He was a dear friend of all nations worldwide," Ahmadinejad had said upon his arrival in Venezuela. "He was the emotional pillar for all the revolutionary and freedom-seeking people of the region and the world." 
 
 The United States, which doesn't have an ambassador in Venezuela, was represented at the funeral by the charge d'affaires at its embassy in Caracas, James Derham. 
 
 U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-New York, and former lawmaker William Delahunt of Massachusetts made up the rest of the U.S. delegation. 
 
 Hollywood actor and Chavez friend Sean Penn was at the funeral, as was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who offered a prayer. 
 
 "Hugo fed the hungry. He lifted the poor. He raised their hopes. He helped them realize their dreams," Jackson said. 
 
 Hero or villain? The many ways to see Chavez 
 
 Maduro, who Chavez had named as his preferred successor before his death, gave a lengthy, impassioned speech that made him emotional at times. 
 
 He addressed the view of Chavez as an autocrat and inept leader who left Venezuela worse off than when he assumed power. 
 
 "Never has a man, here or anywhere, been lied about so much," he said. 
 
 Chavez was a "true son of Christ" who taught the country love and forgiveness, Maduro said. "That's why today we say from our hearts, we forgive those who have defamed you." 
 
 Chavez had asked Maduro and other top leaders what they would do when he died, the vice president said. 
 
 "He arranged it all for us, and now it is up to us whether we will carry it out or not," he said. 
 
 There was no burial after the funeral, because of an unexpected twist that Maduro announced Thursday. 
 
 Chavez will be embalmed "just like Lenin (and) Mao Zedong" and laid to rest at a military museum where generations of Venezuelans can visit. 
 
 It is a reminder that Chavez's image will not soon fade. 
 
 "The body of our leader will be embalmed, and it will ... be surrounded by crystal glass forever, present forever, and always with his people," he said on state-run TV. 
 
 Opinion: Chavez was a maker of dreams 
 
 Chavez died after a long battle with cancer. Thousands of his supporters lined the streets Wednesday in a procession from the military hospital where he died to a military academy where Venezuelans could view him. 
 
 As president, Chavez cultivated an image as a protector of the country's marginalized, and his followers worshiped him with fervor. The turnout at the military academy to view Chavez was so great that the viewing was extended for another seven days. 
 
 Opinion: Chavez used force of personality to win votes 
 
 Chavez first announced his cancer diagnosis in June 2011, but the government never revealed details about his prognosis or specified what kind of cancer he had. ||||| 1 of 2. Cuba's President Raul Castro views the coffin of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez during a wake at the military academy in Caracas March 7, 2013, in this picture provided by the Miraflores Palace. 
 
 CARACAS (Reuters) - At least two dozen heads of state were due to attend Hugo Chavez's funeral on Friday during an outpouring of grief for the charismatic but divisive Venezuelan leader who changed the face of politics in South America. 
 
 Chavez died on Tuesday at age 58 after a two-year battle with cancer, devastating millions of mostly poor supporters who loved him for putting the country's vast oil wealth at their service, but giving hope to opponents who denounced him as a dictator. 
 
 Huge crowds of "Chavistas," many carrying his picture or wearing T-shirts bearing the image of his eyes, have swamped the plazas around a military academy where his coffin was carried after being paraded through the streets. 
 
 "A thousand thanks for the posthumous tributes to a man who fought for world peace, for unity in Latin America and the Caribbean, and for the democratization of global institutions," Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said. 
 
 "The show of love for the president has been incredible." 
 
 Chavez's body is to be embalmed and shown "for eternity" at a military museum - similar to how communist leaders Lenin, Stalin and Mao were treated after their deaths. 
 
 His remains are to lie in state for an extra seven days to accommodate the millions of Venezuelans who still want to pay their last respects to a man who will be remembered as one of the world's most colorful and controversial populist leaders. 
 
 "All these measures are being taken so that the people can be with their leader forever," Chavez's preferred successor and acting president, Nicolas Maduro, said. Maduro will be sworn in as caretaker president after the funeral on Friday. 
 
 More than 2 million people have so far filed past Chavez's coffin behind a red rope at a grandiose military academy, many sobbing, some saluting or crossing themselves. 
 
 Among the leaders gathering in Caracas were close allies such as Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, Brazil's current and former leaders, Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Cuban President Raul Castro. 
 
 "Most importantly, he left undefeated," Castro said, referring to Chavez's four presidential election wins, among a string of other ballot victories in his 14-year rule. 
 
 "He was invincible. He left victorious and no one can take that away. It is fixed in history." 
 
 ELECTION COMING 
 
 Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, a close friend, was one of the first high-profile mourners to arrive after Chavez's death. She flew home to Buenos Aires on Thursday, local media there said, and will not be attending Friday's funeral. 
 
 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due at the ceremony, as well as a delegation from the United States. 
 
 A government source said Chavez slipped into a coma on Monday before dying the following day of respiratory failure. The cancer had spread to his lungs, the source added. 
 
 Chavez never said what type of cancer he was suffering, and chose to be mainly treated in Cuba for privacy. 
 
 His death paved the way for a new vote in the South American nation that boasts the world's biggest oil reserves. But it is unclear when the election will be held. Many Venezuelans have yet to get past his death and think much about the future. 
 
 Watching thousands of people file past en route to see Chavez lying in state, Cesar Mendoza, 28, was selling photos of the late president - shots of him in uniform, before and after cancer, others of him with the Castro brothers. 
 
 "I'm a Chavista. ... I do what I do so all the compatriots can have the commander in their house," he said, adding he had sold 400 photos in one day, and more than 400 Venezuelan flags. 
 
 The constitution stipulates that an election must be called within 30 days, but politicians say the electoral authorities may not be ready and there has been talk of a possible delay. 
 
 Maduro, 50, a former bus driver who became foreign minister and then vice president, looks certain to face opposition leader Henrique Capriles, 40, the centrist governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in last October's election. 
 
 Opposition sources say the 30 or so political groupings making up the Democratic Unity coalition have again agreed to back Capriles, whose 44 percent vote share in 2012 was the best performance by any candidate against Chavez. 
 
 Opposition loyalists blame the late president for creating deep rifts in society with his combative, hectoring style. 
 
 "He did more damage to Venezuela than anyone else," said one opposition supporter, Cesar Caballero, 66. "The country is broken in two parts, each hates the other. Chavez did that." 
 
 A recent opinion poll gave Maduro a strong lead over Capriles, and Western investors and foreign diplomats are factoring in a probable win for Maduro and a continuation of "Chavista" policies, at least in the short term. 
 
 Maduro, who lacks Chavez's man-of-the-people charisma, has pledged to adhere to his late leader's brand of nationalist politics and leftist economic policies. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Simon Gardner in Caracas and Rosa Tania in Havana; Editing by Peter Cooney) ||||| Story highlights Official: Maduro will temporarily assume the presidency until elections are held 
 
 A state funeral for Chavez will be held Friday, Venezuela's foreign minister says 
 
 Venezuela's defense minister says troops are deploying to ensure safety 
 
 "We must unite now more than ever," Venezuela's vice president says 
 
 A deeply divided Venezuela is mourning its late leader and preparing to pick a new president to replace him. 
 
 Venezuelan officials called for peace and unity after President Hugo Chavez's death on Tuesday , emphasizing in state television broadcasts that all branches of the government and the military were standing together. 
 
 Elections will be held in 30 days, and Vice President Nicolas Maduro will assume the presidency in the interim, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said in an interview broadcast on state-run VTV. 
 
 Tearing up as he announced Chavez's death after a long battle with cancer, Maduro called on Venezuelans to remain respectful. 
 
 "We must unite now more than ever," Maduro said. 
 
 Henrique Capriles Radonski, a former presidential candidate and opposition leader, said Venezuelans should come together. 
 
 "This is not the time for difference," he said. "It is the time for unity. It is the time for peace." 
 
 Supporters of Chavez poured into a Caracas square soon after news of his death spread. Some wept openly. Others waved flags and held up pictures of the late president. 
 
 There were no reports of major violence, but there was palpable tension in the streets, as some Venezuelans heading home from work tried to steer clear of Chavez's fervent supporters. 
 
 Venezuela's military is in a "process of deploying ... to ensure the safety of all Venezuelans" and to support the country's constitution in the wake of Chavez's death, said Adm. Diego Molero, Venezuela's defense minister. 
 
 Venezuela prepares for funeral, elections 
 
 Venezuela's government has declared seven days of national mourning, Jaua said. At Venezuelan embassies around the world Tuesday, flags were flying at half mast. 
 
 Chavez's remains will be taken to a military academy in Caracas on Wednesday, Jaua said. There he will lie in state for three days. His state funeral will be held there on Friday morning, Jaua said. 
 
 The announcement of Chavez's death came hours after Maduro met with the country's top political and military leaders about Chavez's worsening health condition and suggested someone may have deliberately infected Chavez with cancer. 
 
 Chavez first announced his cancer diagnosis in June 2011, but the government never revealed details about his prognosis or specified what kind of cancer he had 
 
 Shortly before his last trip to Cuba for cancer surgery in December, Chavez tapped Maduro as the man he wanted to replace him. 
 
 "He is one of the young leaders with the greatest ability to continue, if I cannot," Chavez said. 
 
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 Maduro made no mention of running for election in his public comments Tuesday, but he is widely expected to be the United Socialist Party of Venezuela's candidate for the job. 
 
 During Chavez's absence from the political stage over the past three months, Maduro has been front and center. He has spoken at political rallies around the country and delivered updates about Chavez on national television, drawing growing support from Chavez loyalists. 
 
 Opposition critics have said he was campaigning for office -- a claim the government has denied. Even as Jaua said Tuesday that Maduro would temporarily assume the presidency, some critics questioned whether that was constitutional, since Chavez missed his inauguration and was never officially sworn in 
 
 Opposition politicians haven't said who will represent them in the election. But as speculation mounted over Chavez's health in recent weeks, many had turned to Capriles, who lost to Chavez in October's presidential contest. 
 
 On Tuesday, Capriles called for a national dialogue including all Venezuelans, not just Chavez's supporters. 
 
 "Today there are thousands, maybe millions, of Venezuelans who are asking themselves what will happen, who feel anxiety, and including those who feel afraid," Capriles said. 
 
 Chavez supporters, critics react 
 
 Word of Chavez's death drew swift expressions of sorrow and solidarity from regional allies. 
 
 Ecuador and Cuba both announced three days of national mourning to honor Chavez. 
 
 "The national government expresses its solidarity in light of this irreparable loss that puts the Venezuelan people and all the region in mourning and at the same time sends its heartfelt condolences to the family of the late champion of Latin America," Ecuador's foreign ministry said in a statement. 
 
 Bolivian President Evo Morales' voice cracked as he spoke to reporters, describing Chavez as someone "who gave all his life for the liberation of the Venezuelan people ... of all the anti-imperialists and anti-capitalists of the world." 
 
 But longtime critics of the controversial president offered a different take. 
 
 "Hugo Chavez was a tyrant who forced the people of Venezuela to live in fear. His death dents the alliance of anti-U.S. leftist leaders in South America. Good riddance to this dictator," said U.S. Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. "Venezuela once had a strong democratic tradition and was close to the United States. Chavez's death sets the stage for fresh elections. While not guaranteed, closer U.S. relations with (this) key country in our Hemisphere are now possible." 
 
 Venezuela-U.S. relations surge into spotlight 
 
 Just hours before the announcement of Chavez's death, relations between the two countries appeared to be souring, as Venezuelan officials said they were expelling two U.S. Embassy officials and accused them of plotting to destabilize the country. 
 
 The U.S. officials, both air attaches at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, are accused of having meetings with members of the Venezuelan military and encouraging them to pursue "destabilizing projects," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said. 
 
 "We will not allow any foreign interference in our country," Jaua said. "Do not think that the situation of pain over the health of President Chavez will translate into weakness." 
 
 State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell denied the accusations. 
 
 "Notwithstanding the significant differences between our governments, we continue to believe it important to seek a functional and more productive relationship with Venezuela based on issues of mutual interest," he said. "This fallacious assertion of inappropriate U.S. action leads us to conclude that, unfortunately, the current Venezuelan government is not interested an improved relationship." 
 
 After announcing the expulsion of one attache, Maduro -- addressing the media in a lengthy statement -- asserted that someday there will be "scientific proof" that Chavez was somehow infected by outsiders. 
 
 "An assertion that the United States was somehow involved in causing President Chavez's illness is absurd, and we definitively reject it," Ventrell said. 
 
 It isn't the first time that a Venezuelan government official has implied that a plot could be behind Chavez's cancer. 
 
 Chavez made the assertion himself in 2011, saying at a military event in Caracas that he wondered whether the United States could be infecting Latin American leaders with the illness. ||||| Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, is suffering from "complications" brought on by a "severe lung infection" which developed after surgery, officials say. 
 
 Mr Chavez, 58, had his fourth operation for cancer in Cuba on 11 December and then developed a respiratory infection. 
 
 In a statement from Caracas, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said the infection had "led to a respiratory insufficiency". 
 
 Mr Chavez is due to be sworn in for another term in office on 10 January. 
 
 "[Mr] Chavez has faced complications as a consequence of a severe lung infection," said Mr Villegas. 
 
 'Psychological war' 
 
 The president has not been seen in public since having cancer surgery in Havana, prompting persistent speculation about his condition. 
 
 Analysis Venezuela's government insists it is doing its duty in keeping people informed on the health of Hugo Chavez, angry at persistent rumours that the president's condition is worse than it is reporting. But this latest statement confirms only that Mr Chavez has breathing difficulties, following what it now calls a "severe lung infection": There is still no word on his prognosis, or - crucially - on plans for next week's presidential inauguration. What does seem clear, by its omission, is that there has been no obvious improvement since the last report, so it must now be very unlikely that Mr Chavez can be sworn back into office on 10 January. We can only assume that the looming power vacuum is what drew National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello to Havana on Thursday, joining Vice President Maduro at Mr Chavez's bedside. On his return, Mr Cabello insisted: "We know what we will do." But so far, nobody else seems to. 
 
 The information minister was among a number of Mr Chavez's political allies who have urged people not to believe what they called lies about his health. 
 
 Mr Villegas warned Venezuelans not to be taken in by a "psychological war" being fought in the media which had the "ultimate aim of destabilising the Bolivarian republic". 
 
 Vice-President Nicolas Maduro and National Assembly Head Diosdado Cabello visited Mr Chavez this week, along with several other dignitaries. 
 
 Mr Maduro said on Wednesday that President Chavez was "conscious" and had gripped his hand firmly as they discussed Venezuelan politics. 
 
 He and Mr Cabello flew back to Caracas on Thursday and dismissed rumours of a split in the governing socialist movement. 
 
 "We're more unified than ever," Vice-President Maduro said upon his return to Venezuela from Cuba. 
 
 "We swore in front of Commander Chavez that we'll be united at the side of our people," he said. 
 
 Swearing-in doubts 
 
 Opposition activists have speculated about a split between Mr Maduro, whom President Chavez named as his preferred successor, and Mr Cabello, who the constitution decrees should temporarily take over power if the Venezuelan leader were to have "an absolute absence". 
 
 Chavez's career Born in 1954 
 
 1992: Leads a failed coup attempt against President Carlos Perez 
 
 1999: Takes office after winning election 
 
 2006: Wins another six-year term as president 
 
 2011: Reveals he is being treated for cancer and has two operations in Cuba 
 
 2012: Has two more operations 
 
 October 2012: Re-elected for another term as president 
 
 Mr Cabello said that those who were spreading rumours about problems between him and Mr Maduro would "have to wait 2,000 years for that to happen". 
 
 Mr Chavez has been in power since 1999 and was elected for a fourth term in office in October. 
 
 It is unclear if he will be able to attend the swearing-in ceremony for another six-year term in office next week, nor what the procedure would be if he was unable to attend. 
 
 Mr Cabello recently said that the ceremony could be delayed. But the opposition says such a move would be unconstitutional. 
 
 Opposition politicians say there have been no independent reports of the president's condition. 
 
 On Thursday, Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma demanded that a commission travel to Cuba to report back on Mr Chavez's health. ||||| CARACAS, Venezuela — Thousands of people waited for hours on Thursday to pay a moment of respect to the body of the late president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez , dressed in his iconic red beret and green military uniform, visible to his people one last time. 
 
 The lines, steeped in loyalty and grief, started on Wednesday and stretched through the night at a military academy Mr. Chávez once attended, where he will lie in state until his funeral on Friday. 
 
 Many saluted the president’s remains. Others crossed themselves. Government television broadcast the endless passage of mourners. One elderly woman beat her breast and nearly fainted. Parents and guards in dark suits picked up small children to give them a look. 
 
 “He had his beret on, his red beret, and he looked as if he were sleeping,” said Luis Cabrera Aguirre, a retired rear admiral who served as an adviser to Mr. Chávez and was among the first group of officials permitted access. 
 
 He said that Mr. Chávez’s head and torso were visible through a panel of glass at the coffin’s upper half. The closed lower half was draped with the Venezuelan flag. Admiral Cabrera Aguirre said that Mr. Chávez’s face and especially his neck appeared a little swollen or puffy, but that otherwise, “he looked just like he did in life.” 
 
 Mr. Chávez, who was nearly omnipresent here in his 14-year rule, was not seen in Venezuela since leaving for Cuba for his fourth and last cancer surgery on Dec. 11. Even after the announcement of his return, in a pre-dawn flight on Feb. 18, he remained out of sight, while officials said he continued treatment at a Caracas military hospital. His death was announced Tuesday afternoon. He was 58 years old. 
 
 Conflicting accounts of his final days were beginning to emerge. 
 
 On Thursday, the Reuters news agency reported that a government source said that Mr. Chávez’s health deteriorated rapidly after he held a bedside meeting with government ministers over the weekend. The source said that, with the cancer having spread to his lungs, Mr. Chávez had fallen into a coma on Monday, and that he died the next day of respiratory failure. 
 
 However, the head of Venezuela’s presidential guard, Gen. José Ornella, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that Mr. Chávez died of a major heart attack. 
 
 General Ornella said that he was with Mr. Chávez at the moment of his death, and that among his final words were, “I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me die,” the general said, adding, “because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country.” 
 
 “He couldn’t speak, but he said it with his lips,” General Ornella said. 
 
 Over his final weeks of seclusion, the opposition clamored for Mr. Chávez to make an appearance, and even some of his supporters began to question why he was unable to show himself. 
 
 On Thursday, lying in state, Mr. Chávez was finally reunited with his people once more. 
 
 Despite a rocky economic record and strings of broken or half-filled promises during his 14 years in office, the fundamental legacy of Mr. Chávez was intangible: he has changed the way Venezuelans think about themselves and their country. 
 
 Just as they did on Thursday, when people lined up for one last glimpse of their leader, enormous crowds thronged the streets on Wednesday to watch Mr. Chávez’s modest brown wood coffin, covered in a Venezuelan flag, being carried through the capital, Caracas. 
 
 As it wound its way from the hospital where he died to the military academy where he studied as a young, unheralded cadet, hundreds of thousands of mourners — many dressed in his movement’s characteristic red shirt — chanted, cried, tossed flowers or held up cellphones to photograph the coffin as it passed. 
 
 The procession on Wednesday stretched for miles, a river of red with drivers and motorcyclists trailing behind in an impromptu cortege. 
 
 “Chávez opened our eyes,” said Carlos Pérez, 58, a cookie salesman who drove into town with his wife and took part in the caravan. “We used to be stepped on. We felt humiliated.” 
 
 Conditions for the poor have certainly improved over the last decade and a half, and the ranks of the poor have shrunk. Government programs have given poor people access to low-cost food and free health care and have knocked down barriers to higher education, though many of those programs are plagued by inefficiencies and long waits. 
 
 Mr. Chávez mined and deepened the divide between the masses of Venezuela’s poor and the middle and upper classes, presiding over a bitterly divided country. He mercilessly taunted and insulted those who disagreed with him, calling them fascists, good-for-nothings, traitors, oligarchs, reactionaries and puppets of the United States. 
 
 And he warned ceaselessly of enemies, inside and outside the country, who he said were poised to take away from the poor the benefits they had received under his government. 
 
 According to the Constitution, a new presidential vote must be called within 30 days. The vice president, Nicolás Maduro, 50, became the acting president, and already he appears likely to face a Chávez rival who had put in a strong performance in previous polls. 
 
 Reuters quoted opposition sources as saying on Wednesday that they have agreed to back Henrique Capriles, 40, the centrist governor of Miranda State who garnered 44 percent of the vote but lost to Mr. Chávez in last year’s election.
– Hugo Chavez's state funeral is today, and leaders from around the world have traveled to Caracas for the event—which is set to begin at 10:30am local time but whose details have been, per the AP, "shrouded in astonishing secrecy." At least 50 countries from five continents have sent delegations, including more than 30 heads of state. Among them are such notable Chavez allies as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Raul Castro. "He was a dear friend of all nations worldwide," Ahmadinejad said, according to CNN. "He was the emotional pillar for all revolutionary and freedom-seeking people." Even the US will be represented, with Rep. Gregory Meeks and former Rep. William Delahunt, both Democrats, making the trek. For a partial list of the leaders present, click here. Hordes of Venezuelans came out to get a glimpse of Chavez at his wake yesterday, waiting in lines that started forming as early as Wednesday, the New York Times reports. (Reuters reports 2 million have filed past his body.) The funeral represents a major opportunity for his successors to engage with the public, the AP points out. Vice President Nicolas Maduro will be sworn in today as well, National Assembly president Diosdado Cabello announced last night—even though according to Venezuela's constitution, Cabello himself should become interim president. Maduro is Chavez's chosen successor, and will be his party's presidential candidate.