CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s acting president said Wednesday that it is highly unlikely Hugo Chavez will be embalmed for permanent viewing because the decision to do so was made too late and the socialist leader’s body was not properly prepared on time.

“The decision should have been made much earlier,” Nicolas Maduro said. “The decision, or really the proposal more than a decision, was made as a product of love.”

Chavez died March 5. The decision to preserve his body was announced two days later. Chavez’s embalmed body was to be put on display at a military museum a mile from the presidential palace.

Maduro suggested the body would still be placed there.

“The world’s best” experts, Russian and Germans, were brought in and consulted on the embalming and advised authorities that it was probably not possible, said Maduro.

He did not go into detail.

A Colombian embalmer, Camilo Jaramillo, said that in order to forestall decomposition a body needs to be chemically treated without hours of death – unless it is kept refrigerated at 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

“What I really thought was odd, and what raised a lot of questions, is that they were putting him on display in vigil,” said Jaramillo.