Hugo Chávez enshrined as 'comandante eternal'

Back in 2007, Hugo Chávez created a unique time zone, ordering Venezuela's clocks back half an hour, but on Friday his heirs improvised a funeral like no other to stop the clocks and immortalise the comandante eternal.Dozens of presidents, prime ministers and princes from around the world joined hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at the military academy in Caracas to bid farewell to a leader who simultaneously inspired, enchanted and repelled during his 14-year rule.They came not to bury but enshrine him, for the funeral was a prelude to an indeterminate period of lying in state before Chávez's body is embalmed and displayed in perpetuity at the Museum of the Revolution."We have decided to prepare the body … so that it remains open for eternity for the people. Just like Ho Chi Minh. Just like Lenin. Just like Mao Zedong," said Nicolás Maduro, the vice-president who was due to be sworn in as president at sunset after the ceremony. Maduro is widely expected to win a six-year term in an election due to be held within 30 days.A hush fell across Venezuela, where bars and beaches have been closed for official mourning, as Cuba's Raúl Castro, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bolivia's Evo Morales and about 30 other heads of state and government filed into the academy's chapel. The US sent a small, mid-ranking delegation. Ambassador Catherine Nettleton represented Britain.Crowds lining the route cheered Chávez's mother Elena as she arrived, weeping. The Simón Bolívar youth orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, performed a soft version of the national anthem."My all has left me. Goodbye my giant," tweeted Chávez's daughter Maria Gabriella, a regular companion at his public events. She helped rally support for his return to power after he was briefly ousted in a 2002 coup.All eyes rested on the wooden coffin draped in Venezuela's flag. Before it was closed, some 2 million people, by the government's count, had queued for a glimpse of him, dressed in military uniform and red beret. He was announced dead on Tuesday, aged 58, after a two-year battle with cancer.A band played lively folk music from the plains, songs that Chávez often sang himself during his near-daily television appearances. Maduro placed a replica of the sword of Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century liberator Chávez revered, on the coffin. Upon taking the podium, Maduro cried and proclaimed undying loyalty to his comandante. "No volveran!" he chanted. They will not return! A vow the opposition would not regain power."We have lost a great friend," said Ahmadinejad. "I have the feeling I have lost myself … Chávez will never die." He compared the late president to Jesus Christ.Venezuela, pre-Chávez known largely for oil and beauty queens, has been stunned at the global reaction, with several countries declaring days of official mourning in solidarity. Elías Jaua, foreign minister, said: "This is like having the world united thanks to Chávez."Red-shirted supporters, baking in the sun, repeated what have become mantras: Somos todos Chávez – We are all Chávez. Chávez vive en nosotros" – Chavez lives in us. Others coined a new slogan: Chávez did not die, he multiplied!"I was 10 years old when he took power. He was our comandante, our father," said Giancarlos Mendoza, 34, who joined a convoy of red red buses ferrying mourners to Caracas for the funeral.