CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela will set up a formal inquiry into suspicions that the late President Hugo Chavez’s cancer was the result of poisoning by his enemies abroad, the government said.

The accusation has been derided by critics of the government, who view it as a typical Chavez-style conspiracy theory intended to feed fears of “imperialist” threats to Venezuela’s socialist system and distract people from daily problems.

CARACAS, March 11 (Reuters) – Presidential candidates
Nicolas Maduro and Henrique Capriles have begun Venezuela’s
election race with scathing personal attacks even as mourners
were still filing past the late Hugo Chavez’s corpse.

Maduro, who was sworn in as acting president after Chavez
succumbed to cancer last week, is seen as the favorite to win
the April 14 election, bolstered by an oil-financed state
apparatus and a wave of public sympathy over Chavez’s death.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition leader vowed on Sunday to fight late Hugo Chavez’s preferred successor for the presidency next month and the pair quickly locked horns in an angry war of words.

Henrique Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, will face election favorite and acting President Nicolas Maduro. The pair must register their candidacies for the April 14 vote on Monday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Sunday he will challenge the late Hugo Chavez’s preferred successor for the presidency of the South American OPEC nation next month, setting the stage for a bitter campaign.

Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, will face election favorite and acting President Nicolas Maduro. The pair have until Monday to register their candidacies for the April 14 vote.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition leader Henrique Capriles will challenge the late Hugo Chavez’s preferred successor for the presidency of the South American OPEC nation next month, sources said on Sunday.

Capriles will face acting president and election favorite Nicolas Maduro, and the pair have until Monday to register their candidacies for the April 14 vote.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Within hours of Hugo Chavez’s death, makeshift altars were going up in homes and on street corners around Venezuela with candles, photos and offerings for the late president.

Weeping beside his coffin, supporters are likening him to independence hero Simon Bolivar and even Jesus Christ. Ministers quote his words and precepts in reverential tones.

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.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Sobbing and shouting, a sea of Hugo Chavez’s supporters paraded his coffin through the streets of Caracas on Wednesday in an emotional outpouring that could help his deputy win an election to keep his socialist revolution alive.

Hundreds of thousands of “Chavistas” marched behind a hearse carrying the body of the flamboyant and outspoken president, draped in Venezuela’s blue, red and yellow national flag.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Playing basketball with locals and shuttling between slums, Venezuela’s opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, exuded youth and energy in last year’s punishing presidential race.

Yet he ended up exhausted, quaffing Red Bull to keep going – and ultimately devastated at his loss to Hugo Chavez.

CARACAS, March 6 (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez’s death has unleashed a flood of emotional tributes that
his allies hope will help ensure the survival of his self-styled
socialist revolution when voters elect a successor.

The 58-year-old died on Tuesday after a two-year battle with
cancer that was first detected in his pelvis. He had suffered
multiple complications following his latest operation on Dec. 11
and had not been seen in public since then.