West Belfast Sinn Féin Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Sinn Fein meet with Cuban government representative

Published: 6 March, 2009

Nancy Coro Aguiar, the General Secretary of the Cuban Federation of Women, was in Belfast on Friday, 6 March, to meet with Sinn Fein as part of a visit to Ireland to celebrate International Women's Day and the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.

Ms Aguiar was born ten years after the revolution in the province of Pinar del Río and is an active trade unionist, a member of the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution, and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Ms Aguiar was greeted in the Mayor's parlour by Sinn Fein councillor Charlene O'Hara, North Belfast Sinn Fein MLA Carol ni Chuilin and Belfast Mayor Tom Hartley.

Councillor O'Hara, speaking after the meeting, said:

''We were pleased that Nancy requested to meet with Sinn Fein as part of her visit to Ireland.

''Irish republicans have a long history of solidarity with the Cuban government and the Cuban people.

''Indeed, a monument honouring the Hunger Strikers of 1981 was erected by the Cuban people in 2001 in the Cuban capital, Havana and our party president, Gerry Adams, led an official Sinn Fein delegation to Cuba as guests of the then Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

''At our meeting we heard from Nancy on the situation in Cuba and the constant battle of the Cuban people to survive in the face of the blockade from the US.

''In this year, the 50th anniversary of the revolution, Sinn Fein again calls for the economic blockade of Cuba to be lifted.''