Let Cuba Live solidarity tour - Cuban friendship speaker June tour dates
12-22 June 2034
Rigoberto Zarza Ross, European director of the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP), is touring CSC local groups and participating in the Annual General Meeting and trade union conference fringes in June. See full tour details below.
Rigoberto has been director of the European section of ICAP since 2022, but has a long history of international work, both with the Institute and as a Cuban diplomat. After graduating with an education degree specialising in English, he spent time teaching in Havana before working with foreign students at Cuba’s International School for Physical Education and Sports.
His work at ICAP includes looking after international volunteer brigades, as well as seven years as a senior specialist in the Asia and Oceania section. He has represented ICAP in working delegations abroad at international solidarity events in India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Germany, Spain, Italy and Belgium. He also spent four years as a diplomat at the Cuban Embassy in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
In advance of his tour, Rigoberto sent a message to CSC members:
“It is with great enthusiasm that I look forward to visiting your country for the first time in my position as head of ICAP’s Europe Division. It will be an opportunity to share with all our friends in Britain our main challenges in the face of a US policy of hostility and aggression against the Cuban Revolution. The resistance of our people, accompanied by friends from all over the world, has enabled us to remain firm, and convinced that through unity we can continue to fight for a better world that we all deserve.
“CSC has played a key role among our international friends, in providing material aid and political support, and helping us to minimise the effects of the unfair and genocidal blockade we are subjected to. Your invaluable actions show the best of the British people, as well as their deep and sincere friendship with ours. As a representative of the heroic Cuban people, I will take the opportunity of the invitation to the CSC AGM to explain our working priorities with the international movement of solidarity with Cuba.
“I will give the best of myself in all meetings and exchanges, convinced that links between ICAP and CSC are stronger than the distance that separates our two islands.”
Rigoberto begins his tour in Scotland on 12-14 June, and then will speak at local group meetings and UNISON Conference as he makes his way south before finishing at the CSC AGM in London on Sunday 22 June.
Let Cuba Live
National speaking tour with ICAP’s Rigoberto Zarza
Wednesday 12 June, Glasgow, 6.30pm
Unite office, John Smith House, 145-165 West Regent Street, G2 4RZ
Public meeting
Thursday 13 June, Edinburgh
Scottish Parliament meeting with MSPs
Friday 14 June, Sheffield, 7.30pm
Old Queens Head, 40 Pond Hill, S1 2NG
Public meeting
Saturday 15 June, Derby, 12.15pm - 1.15pm
Déda, 19 Chapel Street, DE1 3GU
Public meeting
Saturday 15 June, Liverpool, 6pm
Fundraising meal with Merseyside CSC members
Contact local group for details
Sunday 16 June, Bolton, 2pm - 4pm
Bolton Socialist Club, 16 Wood Street, BL1 1DY
Public meeting and Cuba Vive fundraiser
Monday 17 June, Birmingham, 7pm
UNISON, 24 Livery Street, B3 2PA
Public meeting
Tuesday 18 June, South London, 7pm
Goldsmiths, Richard Hoggart Building, RHBD 139, Lewisham Way, New Cross, SE14 6NW
Public meeting
Wednesday 19 June, Brighton, 5.15pm
UNISON Conference Fringe meeting
Delegates only
Thursday 20 June, West London, 5pm
Southall Town Hall, SCA Conference Room, 1 High Street, UB1 3HA
Public meeting with Her Excellency Ismara Mercedes Vargas Walter, Cuban ambassador
Saturday 22 June, London, 10am - 1pm
Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, WC1H 9BB
