The Venezuelan government issued a decree Tuesday instructing schools to hold events to commemorate the anniversaries of socialist leader Hugo Chavez's birth and death.
The new curriculum requirement, which applies to both public and private schools, stipulates that they must organize activities for students each year to mark Chavez's birthday on July 28, 1954 and death on March 5, 2013.
The education ministry will publish guidelines for the events, said the decree, published in the official government gazette.
It said the measure would promote activities that "develop national identity."
Chavez, a former paratroop officer, ruled the oil-rich South American country with a unique blend of authoritarianism and populist charisma from 1999 to his death.
Since then, the government of Nicolas Maduro, his handpicked successor, has erected a cult of personality around the late leftist firebrand.
The state media play a recording of Chavez singing the national anthem every day, and often rerun his speeches.
Maduro frequently pays homage to his predecessor, whom he once said had visited him in the form of a bird.
Chavez's eyes are also painted in silhouette on the facades of government housing projects.
Opponents have satirized the image with graffiti reading "Nicolas, I'm watching you and the shortages" -- a reference to the bare supermarket shelves plaguing the country as Maduro struggles to right its listing economy.
Political analyst Mercedes Pulido called the new curriculum requirements "part of the mythology that the government has to construct to maintain the cult of personality" around Chavez.
The Venezuelan government issued a decree Tuesday instructing schools to hold events to commemorate the anniversaries of socialist leader Hugo Chavez’s birth and death.
The new curriculum requirement, which applies to both public and private schools, stipulates that they must organize activities for students each year to mark Chavez’s birthday on July 28, 1954 and death on March 5, 2013.
The education ministry will publish guidelines for the events, said the decree, published in the official government gazette.
It said the measure would promote activities that “develop national identity.”
Chavez, a former paratroop officer, ruled the oil-rich South American country with a unique blend of authoritarianism and populist charisma from 1999 to his death.
Since then, the government of Nicolas Maduro, his handpicked successor, has erected a cult of personality around the late leftist firebrand.
The state media play a recording of Chavez singing the national anthem every day, and often rerun his speeches.
Maduro frequently pays homage to his predecessor, whom he once said had visited him in the form of a bird.
Chavez’s eyes are also painted in silhouette on the facades of government housing projects.
Opponents have satirized the image with graffiti reading “Nicolas, I’m watching you and the shortages” — a reference to the bare supermarket shelves plaguing the country as Maduro struggles to right its listing economy.
Political analyst Mercedes Pulido called the new curriculum requirements “part of the mythology that the government has to construct to maintain the cult of personality” around Chavez.
