<p>The body of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lay in state in a half-open casket Wednesday at a military academy in Caracas, after throngs of weeping supporters lined the streets to bid farewell.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Hundreds of thousands waved flags and chanted “Chavez lives” as his hearse crawled across the capital in a seven-hour trip from the hospital where he died to the academy he once called his second home. <br /><br />(‘Goodbye my president’: Supporters cry for Hugo Chavez)<br /><br />The former paratrooper’s hand-picked successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, walked alongside the car, wearing a somber expression and the colors of the national flag, in what was in effect his debut in an election campaign. Maduro was accompanied the length of the route under a baking sun by Bolivia's President Evo Morales, cheered on by huge crowds.<br /><br />Once at the academy, soldiers removed flowers and mementos thrown on to the wooden casket by the crowd and Chavez's grieving mother Elena covered her face with a white handkerchief during a Catholic ceremony.<br /><br />The coffin was then ushered inside and placed half-opened in the hall, surrounded by his three daughters, son Huguito and a grand-daughter, who looked at their father, some choking back tears, as people chanted: “Chavez lives, the struggle goes on,” as officials and three Latin American presidents applauded.<br /><br />Chavez’s death after a near two-year struggle with cancer was a blow to his supporters and to the alliance of left-wing Latin American powers.</p>
<p>The body of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lay in state in a half-open casket Wednesday at a military academy in Caracas, after throngs of weeping supporters lined the streets to bid farewell.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Hundreds of thousands waved flags and chanted “Chavez lives” as his hearse crawled across the capital in a seven-hour trip from the hospital where he died to the academy he once called his second home. <br /><br />(‘Goodbye my president’: Supporters cry for Hugo Chavez)<br /><br />The former paratrooper’s hand-picked successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, walked alongside the car, wearing a somber expression and the colors of the national flag, in what was in effect his debut in an election campaign. Maduro was accompanied the length of the route under a baking sun by Bolivia's President Evo Morales, cheered on by huge crowds.<br /><br />Once at the academy, soldiers removed flowers and mementos thrown on to the wooden casket by the crowd and Chavez's grieving mother Elena covered her face with a white handkerchief during a Catholic ceremony.<br /><br />The coffin was then ushered inside and placed half-opened in the hall, surrounded by his three daughters, son Huguito and a grand-daughter, who looked at their father, some choking back tears, as people chanted: “Chavez lives, the struggle goes on,” as officials and three Latin American presidents applauded.<br /><br />Chavez’s death after a near two-year struggle with cancer was a blow to his supporters and to the alliance of left-wing Latin American powers.</p>