Venezuelan President on Surprise Visit to Fidel Castro

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made a surprise visit to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro, who praised his guest's "solidarity" with the Palestinian people and condemned the "genocide" in Gaza.

The former Cuban president and leader of the island's communist revolution said Maduro had made the visit Tuesday during a "foreign trip regarding the defense of his country's major oil interests."

Neither government had announced the visit, which Castro described in a message entitled "True friendship" published in Cuban media.

"I congratulated Maduro for his extraordinary solidarity with the heroic people of the Gaza Strip," said the 88-year-old leader, who handed power to his younger brother Raul in 2006 because of ill health.

Venezuela, which recently sent 12 tons of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, stepped in "as soon as news arrived of the genocide and the high number of children, mothers and (other) people wounded or murdered by Israel's genocidal attacks," Castro said.

"The genocide being carried out in the Gaza Strip... is one of the most dramatic events" in history, he said, calling Israel "a nuclear power that is at once sophisticated and irresponsible."

"The chaos in world politics has become evident. That's why my meeting with the Venezuelan president was so useful," he added.

Castro said Maduro had promised to visit him soon when he wished him a happy 88th birthday on August 13.

Since his retirement, Castro has devoted himself to writing articles and receiving foreign dignitaries. In July he met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they visited the island.

His last public appearance was in January at the inauguration of an art gallery in Havana.

Maduro, the political heir of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, has maintained the tight alliance his mentor forged with Cuba, which depends heavily on oil-rich Venezuela's largesse.