CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? In the tree-lined eastern hills of Caracas, you would never know an elaborate state funeral was in progress across town for the most popular president in Venezuela's recent history.
At a park in the La Floresta district on Friday, spandex-clad men and women did group aerobics and jogged, while others sat lounging on benches. No one had any intention of paying their respects to "el comandante."
Hugo Chavez polarized Venezuela between the mostly lower classes who followed him almost blindly during his 14 years in power and an opposition that despised what they said was his autocratic bearing, intolerance for dissent and mismanagement of the economy.
"This is a big joke," Eduardo Perez, a 44-year-old lawyer, said of the funereal pomp across town. "I feel ridiculous as a Venezuelan."
"We can't be so radical as to say he didn't accomplish anything, but when you consider matter in macro terms you grasp that we are in bad shape," Perez said as he tinkered with the engine of his Ford Explorer.
Nearby, Cesar Alvarez sat on a bench reading the newspaper.
The 62-year-old elevator company executive said he has hopes for a better future now that Chavez is gone.
"The man did a lot of damage, because he always tried to win over the masses and indeed this is a very populist government that gives things away to the people, passing out money without any work being done."
On Alvarez's list of complaints about Chavez:
"He practically kept Cuba afloat. And Bolivia - you see (President) Evo Morales there, crying like a baby because he got money. And Nicaragua, let's not even go there."
Cuba and Nicaragua have both benefited from cut-rate Venezuelan oil while Chavez also gave significant aid to Bolivia.
Morales spent all of Wednesday, the day after Chavez's death was announced, walking beside his friend's casket through Caracas' streets.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced Thursday that Chavez would be embalmed, his body placed on permanent display.
Alvarez said Maduro and the others he put in charge to carry out his work need Chavez eternally to "capitalize on his image ... because each and every one of them, on merits, isn't worth a thing."
Maduro, Chavez's anointed successor, was to be sworn in later Friday as acting president in a ceremony opposition lawmakers were boycotting. They argue that the constitution says the speaker of the National Assembly should assume the presidency temporarily while elections are called.
The expected opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles, won 45 percent of the vote in Oct. 7 presidential elections.
Chavez won, of course. With 56 percent.
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