Hugo Chávez and other world leaders who have already been embalmed
After the shock of Hugo Chávez's death, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced that the body of the controversial leader will be embalmed and exposed in a glass coffin at the Revolution Museum permanently. However, although it seems a rather sinister attitude - exposing such a corpse for "all eternity" - Chavez will not be the first leader to be embalmed.
But what is this process that can "deceive" nature and prevent a corpse from decaying? According to the BBC, there are two types of embalming, one more common - so that the body remains preserved until the time of the funeral so that the deceased looks acceptable in front of the family - and a second type, performed by only a few. few experts, so that the body is preserved in the long run.
Claim process
In the first type, which has a shorter duration, a water-diluted chemical is injected into an artery to delay the decomposition process, preserving the corpse long enough for family and friends to say goodbye to the deceased. And the sooner the procedure is performed, the better, since the body begins to change from the moment death occurs.
The second type is much more complex. First, the major arteries and major blood vessels are opened so that all blood can be removed, as their presence can lead to the proliferation of bacteria and fungi. Then a kind of cleansing is performed on the vascular system with a special solution, and a large amount of alcohol, glycerol - to prevent the body from dehydrating - and formalin are injected.
This latter chemical is an important sterilizing agent that can kill any microorganism, and a pink pigment is added to it to make the body look more realistic. In addition, the deceased also gets a wig - since natural hair falls over time - and makeup, and must be kept under carefully controlled humidity and temperature conditions, and undergo expensive and regular maintenance.
Check out some leaders who have already been embalmed:
Vladimir Lenin from Russia
Mao Tse-tung from China
Image Source: Reproduction / The Huffington Post
Joseph Stalin from Russia
Ferdinand Marcos from the Philippines
Eva Peron from Argentina
Kim Jong-il from North Korea
Macabre Curiosities on the Preservation of the embalmed
- In addition to the eternal “celebrities” above, the bodies of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, Czechoslovakia's Klement Gottwald, and even Princess Diana's were also embalmed, although the poor British woman's body was never publicly exposed;
- There are legends about using fixtures - introduced into corpses to regulate humidity - and secret recipes to preserve bodies longer;
- In an interview with the BBC in 1999, one of Lenin's body-maintenance techniques revealed that the leader had his hands and face moistened twice a week with a special solution, and once a year the whole body was submerged in it. ;
- Lenin's old clothes are replaced with new ones - all identical, including ties - every three years, and once the left ear of the former Russian leader had to be glued back in place after falling;
- Russian embalmers were responsible for preparing the body of Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Min, who is sent to Moscow once a year to take the indispensable periodic "showers";
- Mao Tse-tung wanted to be cremated, but in addition to having his wish completely ignored, the embalming did not go as planned, and the Chinese leader's body eventually became deformed, scaring the guards present and the people attending the funeral.
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