An photograph released by the Communication and Information Ministry of Venezuela of President Nicolas Maduro offering a gift to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a painting made by late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, in Havana, Cuba. Maduro travelled to the island to attend the celebrations events of the 60th anniversary assault of the Moncada barracks in the Cuban capital and to meet Castro.
AFP/Havana
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met aged Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana on Saturday, Venezuelan state news agency AVN reported.
Fidel Castro, who turns 87 next month, rarely appears in public and pictures of the historic leftist leader are unusual. The two men met following celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the capture of the Moncada barracks, the event that began the Cuban revolution.
AVN published four photographs of the leaders, including one in which Castro is shown with a book about the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez written by a Spanish journalist.
Castro accepted the book as a gift from Maduro, AVN said.
Chavez, who died on March 5 after a long battle with cancer, considered Castro his political mentor.
Since 2002 oil-rich Venezuela has been shoring up Cuba’s Soviet-style economy by supplying low-cost oil in exchange for the work of Cuban doctors, technicians and advisers n Venezuela.