CARACAS, July 17 President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he felt “his fire” emanating from Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar, when his remains were exhumed on Friday for DNA testing to make sure they are authentic.

“What an incredible moment we lived through last night. We've seen the remains of the great Bolivar,” Chavez wrote in a “tweet” about the exhumation in predawn hours at the National Mausoleum in Caracas.

“I confess we cried, we swore. I'm telling you, that glorious skeleton has got to be Bolivar's, because you can feel his fire,” Chavez said about Bolivar's remains, which where laid to rest in 1876 in the mausoleum, 46 years after his death.

Chavez said the official and solemn exhumation, attended by the vice president, interior minister and attorney general, was carried out by Spanish and Venezuelan scientists. “They took samples for DNA testing, in order to scientifically certify that these are the remains of our founding father Bolivar,” he said of Bolivar, who inspired the independence movements in a large part of South America.—AFP