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

In an interview aired by the official TV, Castro, who attended the state funeral of Chavez in Venezuelan capital of Caracas Friday, said Chavez continued the work of 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 Thursday in Havana to pay respect to Chavez before traveling to Caracas to participate in the Venezuelan leader's funeral.

Chavez, 58, died of cancer at a hospital in Caracas Tuesday. During his two-year battle with cancer, he had undergone four operations in Cuba and spent months receiving treatment on the island.

Venezuela had become Cuba's staunch economic and political ally since Chavez won his first presidential election in 1998. Endi