Venezuelan acting president Nicolas Maduro decreed seven days of national mourning for late President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday.

A supporter of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez holds a poster with a photograph of Chavez and the words "The peoples of the world, united through Venezuela, thank you for your solidarity. Your victory will be ours" while standing on a square in San Salvador March 5, 2013. [Photo: Agencies]

The decree, dated March 5, 2013, was published with Maduro's signature as "acting president" by the Official Gazette. It orders national mourning for the "regretful and painful death and irreparable loss of the hero of the fatherland Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias."

The decree also orders all national flags to fly at half mast in all the public and private buildings in the country until March 11.

In addition, during the mourning period, festivities are banned as well as the sell of alcoholic beverages. Apart from the armed forces, ordinary citizens are not allowed to carry weapons.

Maduro, 51, was Venezuela's Foreign Minister and became the Vice President on Oct. 10, 2012, in replacement of Elias Jaua, who later became the new Foreign Minister.

According to Venezuela's Constitution, after the absolute absence of a President during the term's first year, the Vice President will assume as acting president and will hold elections within 30 days.

On Dec. 8, 2012, before traveling to Cuba to undergo a fourth cancer surgery, Chavez appointed Maduro as his political heir and asked his followers to vote him in case that he could not overcome his disease.