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. ||||| Security Council members vote for tough new sanctions against North Korea for its latest nuclear test, during a meeting at U.N. headquarters Thursday, March 7, 2013. The unanimous vote by the U.N.'s most... (Associated Press) 
 
 Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (times EST): 
 
 1. WHO WILL ATTEND CHAVEZ'S FUNERAL 
 
 At 10:30 a.m., world leaders and celebrities will join Venezuelans to honor and mourn the late socialist leader in a funeral shrouded in astonishing secrecy. 
 
 2. WHAT EXPERTS ARE SAYING ABOUT NORTH KOREA THREATS 
 
 They say Pyongyang lacks the technology for a nuclear strike on the U.S. and analysts say the rhetoric has the added effect of reaching North Korea's own people. 
 
 3. WHO IS OPPOSED TO TSA ACTION 
 
 Flight attendants, pilots, federal air marshals and even insurance companies are part of a growing backlash to a new policy allowing passengers to carry small knives and sports equipment onto planes. 
 
 4. HOW THE BUDGET BATTLE MAY AFFECT WORKERS 
 
 Federal workers at HUD, Homeland Security and the EPA face the possibility of furloughs _ of varying lengths. 
 
 5. THE LIKELY CAUSE OF LION MAULING 
 
 The 550-pound lion that killed a 24-year-old volunteer at a California animal park likely escaped from a feeding cage and attacked her while she was cleaning its larger enclosure area, authorities say. 
 
 6. AL-QAIDA LEADER FACING JUSTICE IN U.S. 
 
 Captured in Jordan, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith _ Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and a member of his inner circle _ is to appear at 10 a.m. in a federal court in New York. 
 
 7. CALLING IT A POLITICAL CAREER 
 
 Democrat Carl Levin, a six-term senator, will not seek re-election in 2014, calling his decision "extremely difficult because I love representing the people of Michigan." 
 
 8. RACISTS NEED NOT APPLY 
 
 A police chief hired to rebuild a tiny Tennessee department dismantled by scandal is using a lie-detector test in a bid to keep bigots off his force. 
 
 9. WHAT YOUR FACEBOOK NEWS FEED WILL LOOK LIKE 
 
 The social network is revamping its main feature to make it appear more like the different sections of a newspaper. 
 
 10. BIEBS FEELIN' BETTER 
 
 Justin Bieber says he is "getting better," after fainting backstage at a concert in London, and the venue says tonight's show is scheduled to go ahead as planned. ||||| 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 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. 
 
 Just Watched Chavez to be embalmed for display replay More Videos ... Chavez to be embalmed for display 02:13 PLAY VIDEO 
 
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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. ||||| The stage is set for President Hugo Chavez's last appearance on the world stage, with leaders from five continents in Venezuela's anxious capital for a funeral Friday to remember a man who captivated the attention of millions and polarized his nation during 14 tumultuous years in power. 
 
 Members of the guard of honor wait for the arrivals of heads of state that will attend the funeral of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez at the airport in Maiquetia, near Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 A supporter of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez holds up a sign that says in Spanish "I am Chavez" as Vice President Nicolas Maduro speaks to the crowd outside the military academy where Chavez's... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Cuba's President Raul Castro salutes as he stands next to the coffin containing the remains of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez during his wake... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, Cuba's President Raul Castro, left, and Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro stand upon their arrival to the Fort Tiuna military academy to visit... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this photo released by Miraflores Press Office, mourners walk beside the coffin containing the body of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez on display during his wake at a military academy where... (Associated Press) 
 
 Workers paint a mural that is symbolic of the eyes of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez on the stairs at the El Calvario monument in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, March 7, 2013. Chavez died on March... (Associated Press) 
 
 Military police carry a woman who fainted while waiting in line to see the body of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez lying in state at the military academy in Caracas, Thursday, March 7, 2013. While... (Associated Press) 
 
 A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez wears a sticker with an image of him as she waits in line outside the military academy to see the body of Chavez lying in state in Caracas, Venezuela,... (Associated Press) 
 
 The ceremony will mark a dramatic exit for a president who quarreled publicly with presidents and kings and ordered troops via live television to defend his country's borders. It promises to also give his successors a prime opportunity to rally public support for continuing his political legacy. 
 
 Yet with basic details about the event unknown just hours before its scheduled start, the funeral also reflected a leader who tightly controlled all aspects of his government. Government officials said it would begin at 11 a.m. local time, but didn't specify where it would take place or what would actually happen. 
 
 For nearly two years, and even after his death Tuesday, Chavez's government has been similarly tight-fisted with information about Chavez's cancer, not indicating exactly where or what it was. 
 
 More than 30 heads of government, including Cuban President Raul Castro and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were scheduled to attend. U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, and former Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, represented the United States, which Chavez often portrayed as a great global evil even as he sent the country billions of dollars in oil each year. 
 
 Two hours before midnight Thursday, National Assembly president Diosdado Cabello added yet more complications to the day's schedule, appearing on national television to announce that Vice President Nicolas Maduro will also be sworn in on Friday. 
 
 That drew criticism from former Venezuelan Supreme Court Judge Blanca Rosa Marmo, who said the government would be violating Venezuela's Constitution, which specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, currently Cabello, should assume the interim presidency if a president can't be sworn in. 
 
 The government has designated Maduro, Chavez's hand-picked successor, as the official socialist party candidate in a special presidential election that the constitution requires be held within 30 days. 
 
 For many Chavez supporters, the task ahead will be continuing the president's political movement beyond his death. 
 
 "We must think about the future and how we are going to guarantee the continuity of the revolution," said Rolando Tarazon, a street vendor who was waiting with his wife to see Chavez's body lying in state at the army's military academy in Caracas. 
 
 The funeral, for one, would likely be an important bid at continuing the Chavez legacy in what promises to become an extravagant exercise in political myth-making. 
 
 The government already launched that effort, organizing a six-mile-long funeral cortege Wednesday that drew hundreds of thousands of mourners. 
 
 Maduro also announced Thursday that the late president's body will be embalmed and forever displayed inside a glass tomb at a military museum not far from the presidential palace from which he ruled. That puts Chavez in the company of Communist revolutionary leaders such as Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh, as well as father and son dictators of North Korea, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. 
 
 Maduro said Chavez would first lie in state for "at least" seven more days at the museum, which will eventually become his permanent home. It was not clear when exactly he would be moved from the military academy where his body had been since Wednesday. 
 
 Oscar Valles, a political analyst at the Metropolitan University in Caracas, said the perpetual display of Chavez's body was about keeping his power structure alive, long after his death at age 58. 
 
 "Nicolas Maduro and his government is building an aura that makes it very difficult, I would say, that in the future, the opposition tries to promote an alternative to the government," Valles said. 
 
 The announcement of the embalming plans came after two wrenching days for Chavez's admirers. A sea of sobbing, heartbroken people jammed Venezuela's main military academy Thursday to view his body, some waiting hours and hours. On Thursday night, Castro and Uruguayan President Jose Mujica visited the viewing site. 
 
 Amid the mourning, some Venezuelans worried openly whether the nation's anointed leaders are up to the task of governing. Others said they wanted to learn when the election will be held. 
 
 "People are beginning to get back to their lives. One must keep working," said 40-year-old Caracas resident Laura Guerra, a Chavez supporter who said she was not yet sold on Maduro, the acting head of state and designated ruling party candidate. "I don't think he will be the same. I don't think he has the same strength that the `comandante' had." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez, Frank Bajak and Christopher Toothaker contributed to this report. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Paul Haven on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/paulhaven
– 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.