Emotional scenes at funeral

Press, 28 December 1977, Page 7

Emotional scenes at funeral

NZPA-Reuter Lima, Peru Chanting mourners wrested the coffin of former Peruvian President, General Juan Velasco Alvarado,, from its hearse yesterday and carried it on their shoulders nearly five kilometres in a procession through Lima joined by 200,000 people. Velasco, who died on Saturday aged 67, was buried in the Angel Cemetery near the Presidential palace, where he ran Peru with a firm hand from 1968 until a military coup ousted him in 1975. A day of national mourning was declared by General Francisco Morales Bermudez, the man who replaced Velasco as President. He did not attend the! funeral, but the commanding generals of the three armed services were among those who did. When the iron-grey coffin was brought from the cathedral where the services were held, the crowd gathered outside broke into applause and chants of “viva Velasco.” Others in the immense throng of mourners began to sing the national anthem. Most wept. The coffin was carried to a hearse, but the crowd quickly surrounded it and took the coffin on their shoulders for the procession to the cemetery. Velasco gained immense . popularity while he was in ; office because of a series of (programmes he passed to assist the poor. I In spite of this, there was I no great public outcry when jhe was overthrown.