3-D Simon Bolivar image revealed by Hugo Chavez
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (R) shows a picture of the possible face of Liberator Simon Bolivar — a digital rendering from genetic data, following the exumation of Bolivar remains in 2010 — during celebrations of Bolivar’s birthday in Caracas on July 24, 2012.
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has unveiled a digitized 3-D image of his hero, Simon Bolivar, who died in 1830 after leading the fight against Spanish colonial rule.
The image was based on Bolivar's remains, which were exhumed two years ago to determine whether he had been murdered, according to Agence France-Presse. The computer reconstruction created an image similar to portraits of the South American independence hero during his time in the 19th century, with dark hair, thick sideburns, pale skin and a stone-faced expression.
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"Hurray for Bolivar! This is his face," Chavez said when presenting the meter-high (3.3 feet) portrait in a ceremony at the presidential palace marking Bolivar's 229th anniversary on Tuesday.
Bolivar was thought to have died of tuberculosis at 47, but Chavez had a theory that his hero had been poisoned in revenge for his fight against the Spanish, reported BBC News. Forensic tests on the exhumed remains were inconclusive.
His remains will now reside in a new $78 million mausoleum built from imported South African marble in the center of Caracas, according to UPI. Bolivar started his fight against the Spanish empire in the early 1800s, and after gaining independence became president of Gran Colombia, which was made up of modern-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and northern Peru.