Dr. José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and head of the Department of International Relations, was received at the headquarters of the ruling Democratic Labor Party (DLP) of Barbados by its General Secretary, George Pilgrim, and the Assistant Secretary General, Senator Andre Worrell, in the framework of the visit to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of bilateral relations. The senior Cuban leader was accompanied by Mrs. Idalmis Brooks, officer in charge of the Caribbean desk at the department, and the Ambassador of Cuba, Francisco Fernández.
The meeting served to reaffirm the will of both political organizations to deepen the exchange. The Secretary General of the DLP stressed that it was his party that established or relations with Cuba in 1972, of which they feel great pride, so he stressed the importance of this visit and his interest in moving towards a more fluid exchange. In this sense, Pilgrim said that a visit to Cuba is still pending, which would be used to evaluate the possibility of attending the courses for the formation of cadres in the School of the Party, Ñico López, as well as other initiatives to improve knowledge of the Spanish Language.
For his part, the Head of the Cuban party delegation, indicated that the invitation to visit Cuba is still standing, that PCC is in the best disposition to deepen the relations of cooperation with DLP, which is an imperative not only to propitiate the advance of bilateral relations but to create conditions for greater political, economic and social integration of the region.
Referring to the excellent meeting held with the President of the DLP and Prime Minister of Barbados, Freundel Stuart, he reiterated Cuba's gratitude to the friendship cultivated in these 45 years with the sister island of the Caribbean, in particular the sustained support for the struggle of the people Cuban for the unconditional lifting of the blockade, against which no concession of principles will be made that affects the independence and sovereignty recovered with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, under the leadership of its historic leader, Comandante Fidel Castro, whose first anniversary of his death the delegation came to commemorate Barbados, with a colloquium to be held at the University of the West Indies, among other political and cultural activities.