Caracas, Venezuela.- Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez chaired the ceremony to receive the remains of the revolutionary leader Ali Rodriguez Araque, who was the Venezuelan Ambassador to Havana.

The event was held at the International Airport of Maiqueitia, in the Venezuelan state of Vargas, and was attended by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and Cuban Ambassador Rogelio Polanco, as well as other dipolmats and local officials and leaders.

Rodriguez Araque’s funeral chapel will be opened at Casa Amarilla, the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry.

Ali odriguez Araque, who was also a guerrilla leader, a member of the National Liberation Armed Forces and a communist member, adopted the surname of ‘Commander Fausto’ to fight the right-wind governments in Venezuela in previous decades.

He was appointed Venezuela’s foreign minister and minister of Finances and Energy and Mines.

He was also the president of Petroleos de Venezuela, the secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).

At the time of his death, Rodriguez Araque had been Venezuela’s ambassador to Havana since 2014.