With the firing of gun salutes, Cubans lived through Friday as the national mourning day decreed by President Raul Castro's government for the death of Venezuela' s late President Hugo Chavez.

Twenty one gun salutes were fired from Havana's San Carlos de la Cabana colonial fortress at 1030 local time (1530 GMT), at the same hour of the state funeral of Chavez in Caracas. During the mourning day, all the public shows and celebrating activities are banned.

The Cuban government declared the national mourning day last Tuesday, few hours after the death of Chavez, 58, in Caracas' Military Hospital, due to respiratory failure. Previously Chavez underwent multiple cancer surgeries in Havana.

The Cubans pay homage to the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution with two official mourning days, as well as the last farewell to Chavez in the squares of Cuba's main cities.

In the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, the ceremony was headed by President Castro, who later traveled to Caracas to attend the funeral of his loved friend. Endit