Marcos, Lenin, Mao Zedung ... and now Chavez

[Doc Alan]

When ex-President Marcos died in Hawaii ( 1989 ), his body was embalmed and flown back to his home in Ilocos Norte, where it is still on display. The Filipino mortician involved – Frank Malabed – works in Manila. He claims to be “ available “ to Venezuelan authorities for embalming the late President Hugo Chavez.



For almost 50 years the numbers of cremations has exceeded burials in the UK ( now around 7/10 funerals ). In the Philippines there are now more cremations ( possibly 1/8 funerals ), partly for financial reasons. Cremation is forbidden by Orthodox Jews and Muslims, but allowed by all Christian denominations, Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists. Funeral directors will never be out of work !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21724769


http://globalnation.inquirer.net/678...lm-hugo-chavez

[Doc Alan]

The Venezuelan government has now said that it may not be possible to embalm the body of late President Hugo Chavez.

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's acting president, acknowledged on Wednesday ( 13 March ) that it could be too late to do so, as "preparatory steps would have to have been taken much earlier".

"Russian and German scientists have arrived to embalm Chavez and they tell us it's very difficult because the process should have started earlier ... Maybe we can't do it," Maduro said.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americ...125831528.html

The embalming process needs to be started within hours of death, unless the body is refrigerated.

It’s a shame they didn’t promptly recruit Filipino mortician / embalmer Frank Malabed’s services ! When Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 and the family wanted his body preserved for an eventual return to the Philippines, Malabed shuttled between Manila and Honolulu every month for four years to take care of the body.

Finally the Philippine government allowed it to be flown to Marcos’s home town of Batac. Imelda Marcos had demanded a hero’s burial in Manila for her husband.

When that was rejected, Malabed ensured the body remained intact ever since – the corpse remains in in a glass case for pubic display in a mausoleum built at the family’s provincial home.

Obviously this is not a popular topic, but is of interest because of the Philippines connection … and sadly death affects everyone – even if the vast majority neither wish, nor could afford, permanent embalming.

[Arthur Little]

Maybe I'm being a trifle morbid, Alan ... but I find this thread very interesting!

"Frankly", the esteemed mortician's name has had an "impact" on my propensity to engage in a bit of black humour ... , in that it could be due to the absence of Malpractice, that the enbalming of the late Venezuelan President could not be performed while he was still abed.

[Doc Alan]

Thanks Arthur – of course Chavez couldn’t have been embalmed in bed… unless he was already pickled !


He was said to have died of lung complications with an underlying “ pelvic cancer “ treated in Cuba. It was first reported two years ago, and the diagnosis must have required a biopsy / sample to have been “ pickled “ in formalin and processed for microscopic examination by a pathologist.


It has never been publicly stated what kind of cancer he had, and of course that’s confidential information. My guess is some form of sarcoma ( a rare type of “ soft tissue “ cancer ), of unknown cause; or possibly prostate.



Stories of U.S. involvement - Chavez being “poisoned “/ injected with cancer by the CIA - lack credibility. Likewise other South American leaders, like President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also had cancer - but of different types ( thyroid and throat respectively ), and entirely coincidental.

[Arthur Little]

Anyone heard the about the homosexual undertaker? ...

... he was feeling dead Ernest!