President Díaz-Canel mourns death of renowned Cuban diplomat

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Friday mourned the death of prominent Cuban diplomat Giraldo Mazola at the age of 86.
 
On X, the Cuban leader sent his deepest condolences to Mazola’s family members, colleagues and friends, to whom he praised his work as a clandestine fighter, founding president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).

Díaz-Canel claimed that Mazola´s virtues inscribe him in his own right in the vanguard of the nation’s history.

Since he joined the struggle against the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship (1952-1958) when he was a medical student at the age of 16, Mazola had an outstanding career in the service of his country, according to the Foreign Ministry (MINREX).

After the triumph of the Revolution, Mazola became ICAP founding president, and from 1969 to 1974, he served as executive secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba in the eastern province of Camagüey.

During his career in MINREX, starting in 1974, Mazola held positions as director of North Africa and the Middle East Departments from 1978 to 1989, and deputy minister from 1980 to 1993 and head of the Office of Attention to the Population until 2023.

He served as ambassador to Algeria, Mauritania, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Chile and Namibia and carried out numerous official missions in other countries.