March 6 Photo Brief: Mourning late president Hugo Chavez, Snowquester, medical services in Mogadishu
Venezuelans and supporters mourn late president Hugo Chavez, U.S. braces for the Snowquester, medical services in Mogadishu and more in today’s daily brief. | Warning: Some photos may depict injury and/or death.
- The hearse carrying the coffin of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez makes its way to the Militar Academy amid thousands of supporters, on March 6, 2013, in Caracas. Venezuela was plunged into uncertainty Wednesday after the death on the eve of President Hugo Chavez, who dominated the oil-rich country for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left. (Juan Bareto/AFP/Getty Images)
- Supporters accompany the hearse carrying the coffin of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez while leaving the Military Hospital to the Military Academy, on March 6, 2013, in Caracas. Venezuela was plunged into uncertainty Wednesday after the death on the eve of President Hugo Chavez, who dominated the oil-rich country for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left. (Luis Camacho/AFP/Getty Images)
- A supporter of the leftist FMLN political party joins hundreds of people gathered in San Salvador del Mundo Square, San Salvador, following the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on March 5, 2013. Chavez lost his battle with cancer on March 5, 2013, his death silencing the leading voice of the Latin American left and plunging his oil-rich nation into an uncertain future. (Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images)
- A young supporter of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez wears a headband that reads “Commander Hugo Chavez, President” while standing at a square in San Salvador March 5, 2013. Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, ending 14 years of tumultuous rule that made the socialist leader a hero for the poor but a hate figure to his opponents. (Ulises Rodriguez/reuters)
- A supporter of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds a poster of him and a candle outside the Venezuelan embassy in Quito on March 5, 2013, after knowing of his death. (Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images)
- Peru’s supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez shout slogans while gathering outside Venezuela’s embassy in Lima after the announcement of his death, March 5, 2013. Chavez died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with cancer, ending 14 years of divisive rule. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)
- Supporters of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez cry in front of the Military Hospital where he died on the eve, on March 6, 2013, in Caracas. Venezuela was plunged into uncertainty Wednesday after the death of President Hugo Chavez, who dominated the oil-rich country for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left. (Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)
- A supporter of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stands in front of the Military Hospital where he died on the eve, on March 6, 2013, in Caracas. Venezuela was plunged into uncertainty Wednesday after the death of President Hugo Chavez, who dominated the oil-rich country for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left. (Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)
- Nicaraguan supporter of President Hugo Chavez holds a picture of him in the ceremony in his honor the day of his death at the Revolution Square in Managua, on March 5, 2013. (Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images)
- Supporters of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez cry in front of the Military Hospital –where he had been hospitalized– a day after his death in March 6, 2013, in Caracas. Venezuela was plunged into uncertainty Wednesday after the death of President Hugo Chavez, who dominated the oil-rich country for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left. (Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Palestinian protestor, holding a picture of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in honor of his death, is seen during clashes with Israeli soldiers outside Ofer prison, near Ramallah, following a demonstration in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails on March 6, 2013. (Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images)
- Rebels celebrate in a street in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa after capturing the city on March 4, 2013. Syrian rebels battling troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad overran Raqqa after days of fierce fighting, and were now in “near-total control” of the northern city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. (Mohammad Al-Hussein/AFP/Getty Images)
- Bahraini youths hold a placard during the funeral of Mahmud al-Jaziri (portrait) on March 5, 2013 in Al Nabih Saleh Island, south of Manama. Al-Jaziri, 20, succumbed to his wounds on February 21 after he was shot during clashes between police and protesters marking the second anniversary of the February 14, 2011 uprising. (Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images)
- Iberia employees dressed as slaves shout slogans during a protest outside company’s headquarters in Madrid during an Iberia strike, the third of three five-day stoppages planned for February and March, March 6, 2013. Thousands of workers facing pay and job cuts at loss-making Spanish airline Iberia on Monday staged a second wave of protests that could ground nearly 1,300 flights this week. (Sergio Perez/Reuters)
- A father and his youngest son work a barbeque cooking kebabs for residents in the city of Deir Ezzor on March 4, 2013 in the eastern Syrian province. Once a thriving hub of Syria’s oil industry, Deir Ezzor is now a ghost town of only a few thousand people struggling tenaciously to hang on against the odds after most of its people fled. (Zac Baillie/AFP/Getty Images)
- This handout picture taken on March 4, 2013 and released by the African Union-United Nations Information Support Team on March 6, shows a Somali woman sitting on a bed with her son, who has has been admitted to a tented-hospital ward at a free Outpatient’s Department (OPD) medical clinic in Mogadishu. Since Burundi first deployed its troops to Somalia in 2007 as part of the AU mission, their free medical facilities have been a lifeline for thousands of civilians that were caught-up and injured during fighting with the Al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group Al Shabaab in and around Mogadishu, and in 2012 alone, they treated over 50,000 patients at the clinic. The OPD clinic is held twice a week, treating hundreds of civilians and would be more regular but for the limited medical supplies. (AFP/Getty Images)
- This picture taken on March 5, 2013 shows Changchun citizens gathered together to mourn the death of a two-month-old baby killed by a car thief in Changchun, northeast China’s Jilin province. The thief strangled the baby to death after stealing a vehicle with the infant inside, police said, provoking outrage across the country on March 5, 2013. (AFP/Getty Images)
- Activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) carry a comrade after he was injured by rubber bullets during a clash in front of the party office in Dhaka March 6, 2013. Hundreds of activists were injured as police opened fire and charge tear gas during a demonstration by main opposition BNP and it’s allies Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami in protest against what it said were violence and killings by the police over war tribunals, local media reported. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)
- Filipino Muslims shout peace slogans during a prayer rally in Taguig, Metro Manila March 6, 2013. About 1000 Filipino Muslims called on Malaysian military forces and armed supporters of Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III for the immediate cessation of hostilities in Sabah during a prayer rally in Maharlika Muslim village on Wednesday. (Erik De Castro/Reuters)
- Pakistani passengers travel on a over loaded mini bus in Karachi on March 6, 2013. Karachi went on an indefinite strike, with businesses, shops, schools and transporters ordered to shutdown until police arrest those responsible for the city’s worst bomb attack in years. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which controls most of Pakistan’s largest city, ordered the strike three days after a powerful car bomb killed 50 people and wounded around 140 others in Shiite Muslim neighborhood Abbas Town. (Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Pakistani worker dries fabric that was dyed at a factory in Lahore on March 6, 2013.Pakistan is the world’s fourth-largest producer of cloth, and the industry accounts for 60 percent of export revenue according to official data. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Nepalese mahout leads his elephant during a general strike called by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist in Kathmandu on March 6, 2013. The nationwide strike was organized by a hardline breakaway faction of the country’s ruling Maoists in protest over an attempt by the mainstream political parties protest against an agreement to allow the Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi of the Supreme Court to head the new administration to oversee the vote in May or June. (Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images)
- An Emerald Dove is placed in a mug to be weighed during the annual bird health check at Chester Zoo in Chester northern England March 6, 2013. (Phil Noble/Reuters)
- A man works checks what will be the first ETCS (European Train Control System) line, on March 6, 2013 in Profondeville, Wallonia. The modernization of the line, between Jambes and Dinant (L154), will enable the system to automatically stop a train that neglects a red light or exceeds the maximum speed limit. (Bruno Fahy/AFP/Getty Images)
- A woman walks by the beach of Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa March 6, 2013. (Marko Djurica/Reuters)
- A woman walks by the Cloud Gate Sculpture, known as “The Bean”, as a snow plow clears the area during a snowstorm in Chicago March 5, 2013. A deadly late winter storm dumped heavy snow on the Midwestern United States on Tuesday, contributing to numerous highway crashes and flight cancellations as it moved east toward the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic states. (Jim Young/Reuters)
- Bill Groves plays with his dog Red while shoveling snow during a massive blizzard near Mt. Jackson, Virginia March 6, 2013. Washington and its suburbs face what could be their heaviest snowfall in two years on Wednesday, as a fierce storm headed east after blanketing the Midwestern United States, snarling traffic and causing hundreds of flight cancellations. (Gary Cameron/Reuters)
- Student Hunter Gallagher uses a shovel to write a letter from his girlfriends name in the snow on the football field at Catholic University on March 6, 2013 in Washington, DC. A late-season winter snowstorm is forecasted to hit the Washington area and is expected to dump 5 to 10 inches of snow. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
- A squirrel sits atop a snowy fence as it nibbles on food during a snowstorm in Arlington, Virginia, March 6, 2013. A fierce snowstorm packing heavy, wet snow shut down the U.S. capital on Wednesday after blanketing the midwest, leaving thousands without power and forcing hundreds of flights to be cancelled. (Jason Reed/Reuters)
- A 3D model of a complex anaplastology case, created in collaboration with the anaplastologist Jan De Cubber, is seen at the Belgian company Materialise, the biggest 3D printer in Europe, in Leuven January 24, 2013. 3D printing has already changed the game for manufacturing specialized products such as medical devices but the real revolution will come when designers start to rethink the shapes of objects. Materialise, a pioneer in the process, has a display of a fold-able chair printed from one continuous piece of plastic – and made with the hinges already joined together, for example. Picture taken on January 24, 2013. (Yves Herman/Reuters)
- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill March 6, 2013 in Washington, DC. Holder was asked about a variety of topics, including the federal budget sequester, the Fast and Furious program, the use of drone strikes on domestic targets and voter rights. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
- Meerkats enyoy the sun at the zoo on March 2, 2013 in Erfurt, Germany. (Martin Schutt/AFP/Getty Images)
Venezuelans mourn Chavez, prepare for election
Daniel Wallis and Andrew Cawthorne Reuters
7:21 a.m. EST, March 6, 2013
CARACAS (Reuters) – Shattered supporters of Hugo Chavez mourned his death in a flood of emotion that allies of the socialist leader hope will help ensure the survival of his self-styled revolution when voters elect a successor.
Ending one of Latin America’s most remarkable populist rules, Chavez died on Tuesday at 58 after a two-year battle with cancer that was first detected in his pelvis.
Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to honor the flamboyant and outspoken leader, whose body will be taken to a military academy on Wednesday to lie in state for three days.
State TV ran constant images of past speeches and appearances, under the banner “Chavez lives.”
The future of Chavez’s leftist policies, which won him the adoration of poor Venezuelans but infuriated opponents who denounced him as a dictator, now rests on the shoulders of Vice President Nicolas Maduro, the man he tapped to succeed him.
“In the immense pain of this historic tragedy that has affected our fatherland, we call on all the compatriots to be vigilant for peace, love, respect and tranquility,” Maduro said. “We ask our people to channel this pain into peace.”
Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and union leader, will probably face opposition from Henrique Capriles, governor of Miranda state, in the next election in the OPEC nation with the world’s largest oil reserves.
The stakes are huge for the region, given the Chavez government’s crucial economic aid and cheap fuel supplies to allies across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Authorities said the vote would be called within 30 days, but it was not clear if that meant it would be held, or simply that the date would be announced.
One recent opinion poll gave Maduro a strong lead over Capriles, in part because he has received Chavez’s blessing as his heir apparent, and he is likely to benefit from the surge of emotion following the president’s death.
The tall, mustachioed Maduro has long been a close ally of Chavez. He immediately pledged to continue his legacy, and would be unlikely to make major policy changes soon.
Maduro will now focus on marshalling support from Chavez’s diverse coalition, which includes leftist ideologues, business leaders, and radical armed groups called “colectivos.”
Some have suggested he might try to ease tensions with Western investors and the U.S. government. Yet hours before Chavez’s death, Maduro alleged that “imperialist” enemies had infected the president with cancer and expelled two U.S. diplomats accused of conspiring with domestic opponents.