Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar will be in Venezuela today to attend the funeral of president Hugo Chavez.

Persad-Bissessar left Trinidad at 4.30 p.m. yesterday for Caracas and is scheduled to return home later today.

Chavez's funeral is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. today.

A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister advised that Labour Minister Errol McLeod will act as prime minister in Persad-Bissessar's absence.

On Wednesday, Persad-Bissessar sent a letter of condolence to Venezuela's Vice-President, Nicolas Maduro.

She said death had cut short the life of a "committed integrationist" who was completely dedicated to the equitable development of the people of Venezuela, Latin America and the Caribbean.

"President Chavez leaves a legacy of strong leadership and unshakable commitment to his principles. Like the Liberator, Simon Bolivar, from whom he drew inspiration, President Chavez lived by the maxim that 'when the State is weak and when results are distantly seen, all men hesitate; opinion is divided, passions rage and the enemy fans these passions in order to win an easy victory because of them'," stated Persad-Bissessar.

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), she said, can be proud of a leader who exemplified so much for so many.

Persad-Bissessar added that she had the honour to have collaborated with Chavez in the furtherance of the goals of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

She assured Maduro that her Government was committed to strengthening, even more, the ties between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.