The coffin of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has been taken to a military academy tonight where he will lie in state for three days.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters lined the streets of Caracas and waved flags as his hearse crawled across the capital in a seven-hour trip from the hospital where he died to the academy he once called his second home.

The commander's hand-picked successor, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, walked alongside the car, wearing the colors of the national flag. He was accompanied by Bolivia's President Evo Morales.

Chavez's death was a blow to his supporters and to the alliance of left-wing Latin American powers, and has plunged the country into uncertainty as an election is organized.

Under Chavez, Venezuela's oil wealth has underwritten the Castro brothers' communist rule in Cuba and he repeatedly came to blows with Washington by aligning himself with anti-Western governments in Russia, Syria and Iran.

His body will lie in state until Friday when an official ceremony with foreign dignitaries will take place.