Why Is Hugo Chavez Building A Massive Mausoleum In Venezuela?

CARACAS, Venezuela — A crane hovers over the latest addition to Caracas' skyline, casting a shadow over a sector of the city that houses the presidential palace, the national pantheon and a military barracks where

Chavez sees his future in Hades

President Hugo Chavez was imprisoned after his failed coup attempt in 1992.

Its slim shadow falls on a 170-foot-high brilliant white structure, shaped like a ramp leading to a convex wall. It’s as anomalous to Caracas' worn-out skyline as some would say the country's president is to Latin America's politics.

The $130 million mausoleum is a tribute to Simon Bolivar, a larger-than-life historic figure revered across the continent for his role in liberating Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The building was ordered by President Chavez and the liberator's bones are to be moved from the nearby pantheon to the new site this weekend.

However, given Chavez's bout with cancer and the prospect of his 13-year tenure coming to an end, critics have suggested that the mausoleum may in fact be a self-dedication, one step further than the Ataturk Mausoleum in Turkey and Lenin's tomb in Moscow's Red Square.

"It's Chavez's future mausoleum," said Jose Jimenez, a 42-year-old accountancy teacher at a local university. "They are pushing for his remains to lie next to Bolivar, to put Chavez's legacy next to that of Bolivar."

Government officials have not commented on such speculation.

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