Colombo, October 17, 2025. At the Colombo Municipal Council, Mayor Vraie Cally Balthazaar received Cuban Ambassador Andrés Marcelo González Garrido.
The diplomat congratulated her on her election on June 16, 2025, and wished her success, expressing his conviction that projects of interest can be developed between Cuba and Sri Lanka.
For her part, the mayor reaffirmed her solidarity and support for Cuba, and her admiration for the Cuban revolution, of which she expressed considerable knowledge, history, and achievements.
During the meeting, the diplomat presented the mayor with a reproduction of a work by Cuban painter Servando Cabrera Moreno.
Other members of the Municipal Council and Maribel Duarte González, First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy, participated in the meeting.
Vraie Cally Balthazaar is the second woman to hold the position of mayor. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Fashion and Apparel Design from Northumbria University in 2010. She then received a Postgraduate Diploma and a Master of Arts in Gender and Women's Studies from the University of Colombo in 2020. She is a prominent politician and activist, a member of the current ruling NPP coalition.