ICAP’s 65th anniversary celebrated
Campaign News | Tuesday, 17 June 2025
A specially recorded message from Fernando Gonzázlez Llort
2025 marks the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP). CSC celebrated this important anniversary during our AGM day. We showed a specially commissioned video celebrating the history of ICAP and the relationship with the solidarity movement in Britain.
Cuban Ambassador, Ismara Vargas Walter, was then presented with a framed 65th anniversary certificate which she received on behalf of ICAP and will take to Havana in July. The certificate was presented by CSC Chairperson Kevin Courtney on behalf of all members and affiliates of CSC in recognition of ICAP’s outstanding work over 65 years.
CSC also showed a specially recorded message from Fernando Gonázlez Llort, one of the Cuban Miami Five heroes and current President of ICAP who conveyed his “great affection to all members,” thanking them for their “decades of unwavering and steadfast support.”Fernando recognised CSC for being “an organisation with outstanding results and a high level of commitment to Cuba within the European solidarity movement,” and explained that 2025 held “special significance” for ICAP.
“For over six decades, we have worked hard to strengthen brotherhood among peoples, defend peace and just causes, and promote respect for human dignity. This celebration campaign is our invitation to all friends to share and experience love for Cuba.”
“In the face of the ongoing hostility of successive US administrations towards the Cuban Revolution. Your support is and will always be essential. As Fidel reminded us, solidarity is the deepest expression of friendship among peoples. In that spirit, we thank you for standing strong by our side in defending Cuba's sovereignty and dignity. We will overcome. Thanks a lot. From Havana to London, from the past into the future, ICAP continues to walk with the peoples of the world. Together we say, Cuba is not alone. Let Cuba live. Drop the blockade. Hands off Cuba. Viva Cuba!” he said.
ICAP was formed on 30 December 1960 during the first year of the Cuban Revolution and its first priority was to counter hostile reporting from the international media and inform people in other countries of the work of the Revolution, the transformations taking place on the island, and threats and attacks emanating from the US.
One of its principal tasks was to organise work brigades so that people could see the reality of Cuba for themselves and undertake solidarity work, something the organisation maintains today. Throughout the years it has also coordinated Cuba’s medical treatment programme for the children and families affected by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, material aid donations throughout the ‘Special Period’, and bringing together campaigners across the globe for the campaign to free the Miami Five from US prisons and organising the annual international colloquium for the Five in Holguín.
ICAP continues to strengthen its links with other countries and solidarity organisations so that more people around the world understand the true nature of Cuban society. Today it has links with over 2,000 solidarity organisations in more than 150 countries, including more than 800 in 45 countries in Europe alone.
In its 65th year, ICAP has called for a year of increased solidarity to match the intensification of the blockade and hardship facing Cuba. The year will pay tribute to Fidel Castro, the organisation’s founding father, including a colloquium around the dates of the anniversary in December.
Noemí Rabaza Fernández, First Vice-President of the Institute says there are three key objectives for the year: to continue denouncing the blockade and reach new audiences with the message; to increase education and understanding of Cuba’s perspectives on major issues facing the world such as such as war, environmental crises, economic inequality, and the resurgence of fascism; and to build the international solidarity movement.
