KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, March 7, IWN — Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves will join other leaders from around the region and the world at the funeral on Friday of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Chavez, 58, died on Tuesday of a heart attack after a two-year battle with cancer, an official in Caracas has said.
Gonsalves will leave St. Vincent Thursday afternoon — today, Elson Crick, communications director in the Office of the Prime Minister, said in an email to the media.
He said Gonsalves will be accompanied by his wife, Eloise, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sen. Douglas Slater.
Gonsalves on Wednesday said the death of his “close friend and comrade” has left “a void, uncertainties have arisen and his unfinished tasks are still to be completed”.
Read: Gonsalves says Chavez’s death has left ‘a void’
“Those of us who have been toiling with him and the Bolivarian movement in the vineyard of our people’s movement, materially, socially and culturally, must bind ourselves ever more tightly together to still the uncertainties and finish his tasks in the on-going journey for the further ennoblement and advancement of our people,” Gonsalves further said.