Cuban leader Raul Castro said on Saturday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had drawn up a guideline for the future of Latin America.

In a television interview, Castro, who attended Chavez's funeral in Caracas on Friday, said the late Venezuelan leader continued the work of the South American liberator Simon Bolivar.

"I am very sure that the new Venezuelan leadership will be successful because they were taught by Chavez to reinterpret history," Castro said in the eastern city of Santiago.

Castro led a ceremony on Thursday in Havana to pay respect to Chavez before traveling to Caracas.

Venezuela has been Cuba's staunch economic and political ally since Chavez won his first presidential election in 1998.

Xinhua

(China Daily 03/11/2013 page11)