ICAP, 65 years of friendship: The early days

Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro closely followed the progress of his project to create the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), a task entrusted to a 23-year-old member of the 26th of July Movement, Giraldo Mazola Collazo (1937-2024), founding director of the entity established on December 30, 1960.

Regarding those early days, Mazola commented that Fidel was very interested in having many people travel to Cuba so they could witness firsthand the changes going on in the country and how they could be extended to other places.

Historical figures of the Revolution would take over for years afterward, including Commander René Rodríguez Cruz (1931-1990), a member of the Granma expeditionary force, and Sergio Corrieri (1938-2008), a renowned actor and political leader who guided ICAP through the turbulent Special Period of the 1990s.

Alfonso Guillén Zelaya (1936-1994), one of the 82 fighters who sailed to Cuba from Tuxpan, Mexico, on November 25, 1956 aboard the yacht Granma, commanded by Fidel Castro, also served as vice president of ICAP.

Today, the president is Fernando González Llort, one of the Cuban Five, who stood their ground throughout the 16 they spent unjustly imprisoned in the United States for defending their people against terrorist acts.

In the decades since its founding, ICAP has amassed countless memories that enliven its life and purpose, such as the visits of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Celia Cruz, and other leaders of the Revolution.

Commander Ernesto "Che" Guevara maintained special ties with ICAP, as evidenced by photographs showing him on the building's terraces while talking with solidarity delegations.

The unforgettable fighter Tamara Bunke Bider, a.k.a. Tania the Guerrilla, a member of Che Guevara's forces in Bolivia, also left her mark on ICAP, where she served.

Decades later, in 2014, ICAP was presented with a collection of priceless historical artifacts belonging to Tania, delivered by the German solidarity organization CUBA-SÍ after receiving them from the guerrilla fighter's mother, Nadia Bunke.