After Friday's ceremonies, the country's Information Minister, Ernesto Villegas, said the government had dropped plans to embalm Mr Chavez for permanent display.

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The methods used to embalm the head also matched techniques in use at the time of his death, said the scientists in a report published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

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Then I lie back with my head on a smooth boulder, gaze dreamily around at the lumpy brown hillsides and let the sulphurous warmth embalm me, a benevolent gesture from the volcanic gods before they blow us all to kingdom come.

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