Venezuelan ambassador to Cuba Ali Rodriguez dies

Ali Rodriguez, an icon of Venezuela's socialist revolution who went on to serve as a diplomat in top government posts, died on Monday.

Rodriguez had served as ambassador to Cuba since 2014. He passed away in Havana and was 81 years old, Venezuela's state TV network said.

Among stages of his storied career, Rodriguez defended the sharply anti-American foreign policy of the socialist governments of late President Hugo Chavez and current President Nicolas Maduro.

"His experience and honesty were a school for all of us," Maduro said on Twitter, calling Rodriguez, "a tireless fighter" who was "indispensable to the revolution."

Born in 1937 in Venezuela's central state of Lara, Rodriguez joined guerrilla fighters as a young man inspired by the Fidel Castro-led revolution in Cuba. He earned a reputation as an expert in explosives and was given the nickname of 'Comandante Fausto.'

The revolutionary fervor in Venezuela, however, never captured mass appeal, and in the 1970s most rebel groups surrendered.

In the 1980s, Rodriguez joined the Causa R party. He eventually became a central figure in Fatherland for All — another political party that supported then-presidential candidate Chavez.

Rodriguez, a lawyer who did postgraduate studies in economics, was an influence to Chavez and was appointed Minister of Energy and Mines at the beginning of Chavez's first term in 1999. A year later, he left the position to serve as secretary-general of OPEC.