CARACAS, Venezuela — Some call 23 de Enero, a barrio on the Western side of Caracas, the most Chavista neighborhood in all of Venezuela.
It’s at the military barracks here that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a failed coup attempt and where he was laid to rest after dying of cancer at 58. On Wednesday, one year after his death, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Cuban President Raul Castro joined with Chavez’s handpicked successor Nicolas Maduro to remember the comandante at his tomb.
Evo Morales y Raúl Castro en el primer aniversario de la muerte de Hugo Chávez. #Venezuela pic.twitter.com/y97KeIqHIF
— Diario PanamáAmérica (@PanamaAmerica) March 5, 2014

Protests have rocked Venezuela in the weeks preceding the anniversary.
See also: Protests Sweep Venezuela: Answers to 6 Key Questions
Members of the opposition movement are fed up with violent crime, the high rate of inflation and shortages of basic goods like toilet paper and flour. According to the Venezuelan government, 18 people have died in the protests so far, and many more have been injured and detained by police.

But while protests continued Wednesday in posher parts of Caracas, in 23 de Enero, residents were more interested in paying homage to Chavez than considering his successor. Here, the loyalty to Chavez, and Maduro by extension, remains strong.

Jhonny Pulido, a music teacher, penned a tribute to Chavez last week and taught the song to a group of schoolchildren. In a plaza, mourners of Chavez listened to them sing:

A year since your departure, we say with humility, comandante you are completing one year in eternity. Comandante, you left us physically, but you didn’t leave us — your legacy lives forever.
That sentiment — the everlastingness of Chavez — was widely shared by mourners here, many of whom wore t-shirts with a simple drawing of his intense eyes, or with the phrase “Yo soy Chavez,” I am Chavez.

“Chavez no se murio, se multiplico!” the people cheered — Chavez didn’t die, he multiplied.

Standing to the side of the stage, Julio Cesar Quiroz quietly held a sign. It read, “When I die, I want to find you wherever you are, to tell you Chavez, Venezuela still loves you.”

Image: Laura Tillman

Quiroz, who keeps a photo of Chavez pinned to his ID, alongside a cross, said he’s kept the sign since he made it the day Chavez died.

“No president before in Venezuela was concerned with the poor,” Quiroz said.

Isaura de Herera, 65, visited Chavez’s tomb Wednesday, mourning him as she would a member of her own family. On the day he died a year ago, Herera said she was in Maracaibo, but quickly flew back to Caracas because she didn’t want to miss the chance to join the masses of Venezuelans who visited his body.

“Today we are crying,” Herera said, “and we’ll continue crying for many years.”

Her granddaughter, Ranesmee, lay sleeping nearby with a Chavez pin on her chest. Ranesmee was born one month after Chavez died, but will inherit a country that is impacted by him in nearly every aspect.

Image: Laura Tillman

“I’m going to tell her everything I’ve lived,” said Herera.

Residents of 23 de Enero were eager to induct this reporter into the cult of Chavez, purchasing a bracelet with beadwork of Chavez’s eyes and placing it on her wrist.

“To protect you,” one of the men said.