Preserved for Posterity

After the recent death of Hugo Chavez, it was thought that his body would be put on permanent display. Though Venezuela's information minister now says that will not be the case, there are many deceased world leaders whose remains have been embalmed for the public. Read on to see more preserved politicians.

In this picture, Maduro, first left, Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, second left, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, third left, and Hugo Chavez's daughter Rosa Virginia mourn next to the glass-topped casket containing Chavez's remains at the military academy in Caracas March 7, 2013.

Perhaps the most famous world figure to be put on permanent posthumous display is Soviet political leader Vladimir Lenin.

In this picture, Lenin addresses his supporters celebrating the first anniversary of Bolshevik revolution in Moscow in October 1918.

Vladimir Lenin's embalmed body has been kept in a mausoleum, open to the public, in Moscow's Red Square since shortly after his death in 1924.

The Lenin Mausoleum stands in Red Square in Moscow.

You can take a virtual tour of the famous mausoleum here.

Chinese leader Mao Zedong, seen here in August 1966, was infamous for leading China's "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution."

After his death in 1976, the Communist Party chairman's remains were embalmed and put on public display.

This photograph, released by China's official news agency, shows state leaders standing vigil before Mao Zedong's remains Sept. 13, 1976.

Mao Zedong's remains are housed in a large mausoleum in Beijing's famous Tiananmen Square in this undated picture.

Argentinean first lady Eva Peron, known as Evita, was also embalmed for posterity. But, according to this BBC article her remains disappeared three years after her 1952 death during a coup against her husband, President Juan Peron.
In the 1970s, Evita's preserved body was found, restored and briefly displayed a second time before finally being laid to rest in a fortified crypt.

Eva Peron's funeral is seen in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 1952.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, seen here in August 2011, died in December of the same year at age 69. Kim's embalmed body, still in his trademark khaki jumpsuit, was unveiled one year later in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Read more: North Korea unveils Kim Jong Il's embalmed body

Before being permanently preserved, Kim Jong Il's body was laid out in a glass coffin for mourners at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, Dec. 20, 2011.

The body of late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea, Dec. 20, 2011.

President Ferdinand Marcos, shown here in 1985, ruled the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, holding on to power for nearly half that time thanks to the use of martial law, a compliant military and powerful backing from the United States.

Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989 and his preserved body was returned to the Philippines in 1993 where it is kept on display in the Marcos Museum and Mausoleum in Batac, Luzon, Philippines.

In this picture, former first lady Imelda Marcos kisses the glass casket of her dead but unburied husband March 26, 2010.