Cuban President Raul Castro, left, and U.S. President Barack Obama meet at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama, Saturday, April 11, 2015. (AP Photo)
Cuba's President Raul Castro consoled his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro today, following a historic election defeat which handed control of Congress to the opposition.
The Cuban leader expressed "admiration" for the "extraordinary battle" waged by Maduro, the handpicked successor of late president Hugo Chavez, who now will be forced to work with an opposition-dominated Congress.
"Dear Maduro: I have followed minute by minute, the extraordinary battle that has been waged," Castro wrote in the state-run Granma newspaper.
"I am certain that new victories will come to the Bolivarian Revolution," the Cuban president wrote, referring to the socialist policies put in place by the firebrand Chavez.
A center-right coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) won a majority of 99 out of 167 legislative seats in Sunday's vote, handing control of Congress to the opposition for the first time in 16 years, as voters punished the socialist government for an economic crisis and insecurity in the oil-rich nation.
Maduro promptly accepted the defeat, a blow to his leadership and the "revolution" of "21st century socialism" launched under Chavez.