Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed anger over the death of Muammar Gaddafi, calling it an "outrage" and saying the ousted Libyan strongman was a "martyr".
"Sadly the death of Gaddafi has been confirmed," said Chavez, who had just returned to Venezuela from cancer treatment in Cuba.
"They assassinated him. It is another outrage," the Venezuelan leader told reporters in the town of La Grita.
"We shall remember Gaddafi our whole lives as a great fighter, a revolutionary and a martyr," he said.
Chavez had defended Gaddafi since the start of the uprising against the Libyan leader's regime in February, and accused NATO of using the conflict to gain control over Libya's oil.
"The saddest thing is that in its quest to dominate the world, the empire and its allies are setting it on fire," Chavez said, referring to the United States.
Chavez has refused to recognise the new Libyan regime, and has ridiculed Libya's new UN representative as a "puppet" and a "dummy".
In 2004, Chavez was awarded the Al-Kadhafi International Prize for Human Rights, a prize granted by the Libyan leader. Cuba's Fidel Castro and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega have also won the award.
The comments on the situation in Libya came as Chavez announced that the cancer treatment he was undergoing has been successful, and that he was free of the disease as he arrived home after medical tests in Cuba.
The test results "allow me to affirm that I am free of the disease," declared Chavez, who flew directly from Havana to the town of La Fria, 645 kilometers (400 miles) southwest of Caracas.
The Venezuelan leader had a tumor extracted in June in Havana, and has since undergone four rounds of chemotherapy.
