Venezuela president ‘sleeps next to Chavez body’

VENEZUELAN president Nicolas Maduro has admitted that he sometimes sleeps in the mausoleum which houses the remains of Hugo Chavez, his mentor and the country’s former leader.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Picture: AFP/ Getty

Maduro was Chavez’s vice president and named by him as his successor before he died.

During the campaign for the April 14 election he narrowly won, Maduro caused uproar when he said Chavez came to him in the form of a little bird that flew around his head.

Now Venezuela’s president has reopened the issue of his use of Chavez’s image.

During an act at the former military museum where Chavez’s remains are kept, Maduro said: “I sometimes come at night. At times, many times, I sleep here.”

He added that he occasionally brings advisers to the mausoleum. He said: “We enter at night and we stay to sleep. At night we reflect on things here.”