CARACAS – Venezuelan officials claimed that as many as 55 world leaders will attend the funeral of late President Hugo Chávez on March 8.

Interim leader Nicolás Maduro, who was Chávez’s vice president, said heads of state of governments from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean have confirmed their attendance for the ceremony at the Military Academy in Caracas at 1530 GMT.

The following Latin American presidents are expected to attend, according to the Venezuelan government: Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, Argentina’s Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Chile’s Sebastián Piñera, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, El Savador’s Mauricio Funes, Cuba’s Raúl Castro, Haiti’s Michel Martelly, Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Panama’s Ricardo Martinelli, Peru’s Ollanta Humala, Costa Rica’s Laura Chinchilla, Guatemala’s Otto Pérez Molina, the Dominican Republic’s Danilo Medina and Uruguay’s José Mujica. Spain will be represented by Prince Felipe de Borbón.

The United States will be represented by former congressman William Delahunt (D-Mass.), Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and James Derham, the chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas.

Though some European and Asian countries were sending their leaders, some European Union nations were sending lower-ranking officials.

Chávez, who took office on Nov. 2, 1999, died of cancer on March 5.

[AFP (Venezuela), 07/03/2013; El Universal (Venezuela), 08/03/2013; Notimex (Mexico), 07/03/2013]