Juan Barreto / AFP - Getty Images FILE

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sits under a portrait of his hero Simon Bolivar during a press conference in Caracas in Sept. 2002.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Hugo Chavez did something a bit strange last summer. 

He secretly sent a team of forensic scientists to open the coffin of independence hero Simon Bolivar and exhume his remains.

The Venezuelan president wanted to investigate exactly how Bolivar, who was instrumental in driving the Spanish out of Latin America, died almost two centuries ago.

While most historians say tuberculosis killed Bolivar when he was 47, Chavez had another theory. He suspected that Bolivar was poisoned.

At the time, Chavez was campaigning to win another term as president of Venezuela.

Just weeks earlier, the Venezuelan president had declared himself "free, free, totally free," of the cancer that killed him on Tuesday. It was the second time Chavez would claim he was cured.

Throughout his 14-year rule, Chavez often evoked Bolivar's image, claiming his socialist state was just the next stage in Bolivar's campaign to liberate the continent from outside domination.

Chavez made a big show of the investigation on national TV, even showing footage of Bolivar's skeleton while playing the national anthem. "Viva Bolivar," said Chavez. "The great Bolivar has returned!"

Chavez then decided to build a $150 million grandiose monument at the National Pantheon in Caracas to house Bolivar's remains. At the time, Chavez said the aim was to "glorify Bolivar."

Perhaps he had his own final resting place in mind as well.

Slideshow: Hugo Chavez: 1954 - 2013

Leo Ramirez / AFP - Getty Images

Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez across the Americas mourn his death.

Launch slideshow

Under Venezuelan law, only national heroes are bestowed the honor of repose at the National Pantheon, and any candidate must have died at least 25 years earlier.

Already, a national campaign has begun in Venezuela to lay Chavez's remains alongside his beloved Bolivar. There are even loud whispers of initiating a national referendum to vote on changing the Constitution to amend the 25-year rule.

Some of Chavez's supporters allege another thing may unite the two men.

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro promised the government would launch a "scientific investigation" into suspicions that Chavez was poisoned. Who would be responsible? Maduro blamed "the country's historical enemies."

Time will tell if the investigation into Chavez's illness reveals anything nefarious behind the cancer that killed him. They couldn't prove much testing Bolivar's remains.

"We could not establish death was by non-natural means or by intentional poisoning," the Chavez government admitted.

For Chavez, that didn't matter. To the day he died, he continued to believe there had been a "great farce" and "cover-up" of Bolivar's death. 

"They killed Simon Bolívar. They murdered him and, even though I don't have proof, the circumstances in which he died point to that," he concluded.

Chavez's supporters are now on the hunt for their own smoking gun.

Related:

Full coverage of Hugo Chavez's death from NBC News

'We'll carry on your fight': Venezuelans mourn Hugo Chavez

Socialist socialites: Hollywood mourns Hugo Chavez

Jim Craven/ NBC News

Margaret Wambui speaks on her cell phone outside her

NAIROBI, Kenya – Imagine paying just $20 for a fancy cell phone with a good calling plan. Or how about working with a cell phone company that won’t obligate you to sign one of those tricky multiyear contracts with deceptive pricing plans detailed in tiny print that skyrocket with every added feature? How about calls to anywhere in the country costing less than 3 cents a minute and most international calls costing just a penny more?

Sound too good to be true, especially for American cell phone users? Not in Kenya. I’m on assignment in Kenya and am astonished at how little people pay for cell phone calls.

The phones work, calls are cheap, and the country is using cell phone technology innovative ways – beyond simple telephone calls to personal banking.  

In addition to having us beat, cell phone tariffs here are the lowest in Africa.

Competition frees up market
A call over Kenya’s Safaricom network, for example, costs about one-third the price of making a call from anywhere else on the continent. 

And those low prices apply to downloading data as well. No one blinks an eye at surfing the web for hours at a time on their phones. 

But Kenya wasn’t always so consumer-friendly.

A Canadian businessman told me that just six years ago, he was paying more than $1,000 a month to connect to the Internet via modem in Kenya.  

And a photographer told me about how he used to trudge across Nairobi to a five-star hotel to connect a few times a week. “Those days, there was just a handful of cyber cafes and they charged somewhere near the equivalent of $5 an hour, pretty pricey for the average user,” he said. 

During those years, hairdresser Janet Muoki said she only carried her cell phone for emergencies. Now she said she calls her brother living in the U.S. and her best friend in South Africa a few times a week. 

While cell phone prices have been steadily dropping in Kenya since 2008, last August the government regulator introduced new rules that sparked a fierce price war between carriers. It all started when the Communications Commission of Kenya cut mobile phone termination rates, namely how much mobile operators can charge for connecting your call to another network.  

That fee was often blamed for bloating phone bills. Small companies trying to break into the cell phone business characterized the fee as a big-bully tactic of the larger cell phone networks—arguing that the higher the termination fee, the more expensive it becomes to operate their less popular networks. 

Jim Craven/ NBC News

Margaret Wambui works with a customer at her

But on July 1 Kenya’s termination rate was slashed again and now you don’t hear consumers complaining. Robert Kabata admitted that he loves seeing the cell phone companies fighting for his business. In the past, making a call was a big deal that required some thought; now he doesn’t think twice before making a call. 

To prove his point, Kabata said just that morning he went out to meet a friend. Before he reached their agreed rendezvous point, he sat down on a bench and called his buddy to tell him to walk around the corner. 

“I know, it’s decadent,” he admitted with a grin. 

Cell phone banking
His wife, Margaret Wambui, makes her living from another modern feature of the Kenyan cell phone – a mobile banking platform called “M-Pesa.”  A joint venture between Safaricom and Vodaphone, the “M” stands for mobile and “Pesa” means money in Swahili. Many Kenyans say the mobile-phone-based money service has helped turn their mobile devices into mobile banks. 

With the ease of a text message, “M-Pesa” allows millions of Kenyans to buy groceries, pay their rent and utility bills or transfer money without the need to maintain a bank account, visit the bank or even carry cash.

All consumers need to do is register with a national ID card or passport and then they can go to any licensed “M-Pesa” customer booth, like Margaret’s booth next to her women’s clothing boutique, deposit the contents of their paychecks into accounts run from their cell phones or withdraw cash.

These days, Margaret says she earns up to five times more from “M-Pesa” commissions than she does selling women’s clothing and jewelry.

Kenyans also use “M-Pesa” to send money to relatives hundreds of miles away, living in the remotest corners of the country.

All the other person needs is an “M-Pesa” feature on their cell phone too.  They then take their phone to an authorized agent, like Margaret, and with a push of a button they pick up their cash.

For giant telecom Vodaphone, which owns the “M-Pesa” property rights, the innovation earned $15.6 million last year for the giant British telecom.

Nationwide, some $11 billion moved over the mobile network in 2011.

“M-Pesa” has transformed the way average Kenyans conduct business. It has been especially innovative for the 90 percent of the population who previously never had a bank account. 

Now, about 60 percent of Kenyans rely on “M-Pesa” to shop, pay all their bills and generally move their money around.

No need to lug around credit cards or wads of cash. Who needs to waste time on a long bank line or at an ATM machine? Just a simple cell phone and a PIN number gets you through the day.

Who would argue that Kenyans haven’t re-invented the idea of a “smart” phone?

Franklin Reyes / AP

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, holds up his Honoris Causa distinction conferred by Gustavo Cobreiro, rector of the University Havana, right, Wednesday in Havana, Cuba, his third stop of a Latin American tour.

HAVANA -- No surprise to anyone that we're hearing tough words during the Latin American tour of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Swinging through Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador, the Iranian leader seems to be at home among America’s united enemies — and the left leaders equally comfortable with him.

First and foremost, Ahmadinejad seems to be on his tour to defend his country’s nuclear program. While Iran claims that the nation’s nuclear program is solely for energy and other peaceful purposes, the United States and Western allies accuse Tehran of secretly building nuclear weapons.

During Monday’s stop in Caracas, Ahmadinejad addressed the issue head on and charged the Obama administration with making unjust threats. 

"They say we're making a bomb. ... Everyone knows that those words ... are a joke, something to laugh at." Ahmadinejad claims Washington is just "afraid" of Iran’s development.

For his part, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused Washington of demonizing Iran and trumping up false claims about the nuclear issue "like they used the excuse of weapons of mass destruction to do what they did in Iraq."

Chavez even joked how Ahmadinejad’s tour was making America nervous: "When we devils get together ... it's like they go crazy," Chavez said.

From Caracas, Ahmadinejad headed to Managua for the inauguration of Daniel Ortega to another term. He called Ortega his "brother president" while Ortega praised Ahmadinejad for his "peace" efforts. Once again, Ahmadinejad dismissed the accusations about Iran's nuclear program.

Wednesday morning, Ahmadinejad landed in Havana.

In each country so far, Ahmadinejad secured the backing for his controversial nuclear program. Don’t expect less from the Cubans.

Fidel Castro is on the record defending Iran's right to develop nuclear energy and ridiculing the Obama administration for claiming that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Receiving an honorary doctorate in political science from Havana University, Ahmadinejad spent almost his entire acceptance speech accusing the West of being the world's "bully." The wars in the Middle East, he charged, have been all about winning elections in the West and about controlling oil reserves.

Ahmadinejad was also expected to meet with the Castro brothers during his one-day visit. Again, we should expect to hear more of the same given that the two countries see eye to eye, especially when it comes to the United States. Since the start of Iran’s nuclear program, Havana has unflaggingly defended Tehran's right to develop nuclear technology while openly ridiculing the Obama administration for its claim that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

And for Iran's part, the Islamic nation has repeatedly condemned the U.S. economic embargo against the island nation.

But, for as much as this trip is about criticizing U.S. policies, it also seems to have a practical edge to it. Ahmadinejad is talking up the importance of trade in Latin America.

In Venezuela, Iran has already invested in the construction industry along with factories producing farm machinery, trucks and food products.

Cuban-Iran economic ties are fairly strong too.

Back in 2003, the two countries agreed to support mutual foreign investment and expand bilateral trade. Since then, Iran has extended 200 million in euro credit to the island, which the island has used primarily to upgrade its rail system. There is discussion to increase that line of credit to 500 million euros. Cuba is helping to build a plant in Iran that produces vaccines and medicines. The bilateral trade is said to be as much as 30 million euros a year.

From here, the Iranian leader heads to Ecuador as the last stop on his whirlwind tour.

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