Updated

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is going to stage a tribute to Fidel Castro at the military barracks in Caracas where the remains of his closest ally, former President Hugo Chavez, are interred.

The ceremony will take place Saturday night.

Maduro earlier declared three days of official mourning for Castro, who provided key assistance and mentoring to Chavez after he was released in 1994 from imprisonment for a failed attempt to overthrow Venezuela's government with a military coup.

In the poor Caracas neighborhood of 23 de Enero, pro-government residents have hung Cuban flags outside their homes while a loud speaker blasted Cuban salsa music and played excerpts of Castro's anti-imperialist harangues. Doctors sent by Cuba in exchange for Venezuelan oil are in mourning while attending patients.

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