Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro praised Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday, calling the Vermont Democrat “an emerging candidate with a renovating and revolutionary message.”

The comments came during a Caracas commemoration of “Anti-Imperialism Day,” Fox News Latino reports.

This holiday marks the day President Obama called the South American country a national security threat.

Maduro applauded Sanders’ humble beginnings, “He is the son of Jew immigrants from New York and was raised in Brooklyn.”

The comments are rather untimely, last night during the CNN debate Sanders was confronted about comments he made in 1985 praising Fidel Castro. (RELATED: One Sentence Sums Up Venezuela’s INSANE Economic Collapse)

After acknowledging that Cuba is “undemocratic and authoritarian,” Sanders said, “It would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they have made some good advances in health care.”

He added, “They have made some progress in education. I think by restoring full diplomatic relations it will result in significant improvement.”

Maduro also commented on Obama’s thawing of US relations with Cuba, saying that it isn’t a victory for the United States and instead one for communist Cuba.

“[Obama] is hoisting the flag against the blockade of Cuba [but] we believe it is a great victory for Fidel’s Cuba, for Raul’s Cuba, for the revolutionary Cuba that has forced a U.S. president to do and say what Barack Obama has said and done,” said the Venezuelan president.

He also commented on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He did not view them as positively as Sanders.

“Too arrogant, I have to say it, [Hillary is] too arrogant,” said Maduro.

Regarding Trump, he said, “What he has announced [he would do] against our brother migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean is brutal, his announcement of building an electrified wall between the United States and our America is brutal.”