Cuban President Regrets Death of Venezuelan Ambassador

President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Tuesday lamented the death of Venezuelan ambassador to Cuba, Ali Rodriguez Araque, and sent his solidarity to the family of the outstanding revolutionary.

'Our heartfelt embrace to the Bolivarian family that suffers the loss of an exemplary revolutionary, Ali Rodriguez Araque, Embajador de #Venezuela en #Cuba. Guerrilla fighter, politician, intellectual and Latin Americanist, already inseparable from #Cuba. Farewell, brother. #SomosCuba, 'the president posted on his Twitter account @DiazCanelB.

Rodriguez Araque was an active guerrilla leader against the ruling right-wing governments in Venezuela in the 60s and 70s of the last century.

After the triumph of the Bolivarian Revolution, he held important posts in the administrations of the then President Hugo Chavez (1954-2013), among them Minister of Energy and Mines-Energy and Petroleum, Foreign Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance.

He also was the president of the Union of South American Nations and led in 2014 Venezuela's diplomatic representation in Cuba until his death on Monday in Havana.