The wake for deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will end on Friday, but instead of being buried, his remains will be placed in a military museum in Caracas. The South American country will also extend its mourning period for their popular leader by another seven days.

Throngs of Venezuelans continue to pay their last respect to Mr Chavez, whose body lies in state at a military academy in the national capital city. With the additional seven days of national grieving, that means Venezuelan students would lost two weeks of classes.

On the same day that a state funeral will be held for Mr Chavez, Vice President Nicolas Maduro will take his oath of office as interim president. The announcement was made on national television on Thursday night by no less than Diosdado Cabello, the head of the country's National Assembly who is the one mandated by the Constitution to be temporary leader of the nation until an election is held within the next 30 days.

Mr Maduro has also been named presidential candidate of the administration party and is expected to run against the opposition bet, Miranda state Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski, who lost by only 10 per cent to Mr Chavez in 2012.

With the plan to place Mr Chavez's embalmed body in a military museum, he joins a short list of 7 heads of state whose families or national leaders decided on a similar final resting place for their president or prime minister.

The list is made up of

1. Vladimir Lenin - Founder of the dissolved Soviet Union. His body is on display at a mausoleum at Red Square since 1924.

2. Josef Stalin - Soviet dictator. His body was placed right beside Lenin since 1953 but Soviet authorities ordered it removed and had the body buried during the period of de-Stalinisation.

3. Ho Chi Minh - Vietnamese revolutionary leader. His body is inside a glass sarcophagus a museum in Hanoi since 1975. The body is a tourist attraction.

4. Mao Zedong - Founder of the People's Republic of China. The body has been at the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall in Tianamen Square in Beijing since 1977.

5. Ferdinand Marcos - President of the Philippines. His body was initially kept in a museum in Hawaii but later transferred to the family mausoleum in Ilocos Norte, Philippines.

6. Kim Il Sung - The founding father of North Korea. His body, interred at the Kumsusan Mausoleum in 1995, is encased in a glass and open to the public for viewing.

7. Kim Jong Il - The recently deceased leader of North Korea and son of Kim Il Sung. His body was placed in the same mausoleum since December 2012.

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