Chavez congratulates Cuban leader on re-election

CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Monday congratulated his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro on his re-election as president of Cuba's State Council.

In a statement released by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, Chavez, who recently returned from a two-month cancer treatment in Cuba, and is now hospitalized in Caracas, said, "By overwhelmingly re-electing Army General Raul Castro Ruz to lead the Cuban State, Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power has rightly acknowledged the trajectory of this brave soldier."

Castro, along with his elder brother and predecessor Fidel Castro, has been a "fundamental piece" in the construction of "a unique democratic system (that) generates authentic sovereignty and independence" in Cuba, said Chavez.

Raul Castro, who took over from his brother in 2006 after Fidel fell ill, was elected as president in 2008, and re-elected to a second five-year term on Sunday by the newly-installed National Assembly.

After the vote, Castro, who turns 82 in June, said that he would be retiring at the end of his term in 2018 if not before.

Cuba has been one of the most important allies of the Venezuelan government since Chavez took power in 1999.

Since Chavez announced he had cancer in June 2011, he has mostly undergone treatment at Cuba's Center for Surgical Research (CIMEQ) in Havana.

He had his fourth operation on December 11, 2011 and had remained in Cuba until February 18 this year.