Jorge Bolaños Suárez

Jorge Alberto Bolaños Suárez was born in Las Tunas in 1936. Before entering diplomacy, he worked in banking and supported the movement against Fulgencio Batista. In a later interview, he recalled organizing a clandestine cell among bank and insurance employees and using an office printing press at night to reproduce revolutionary material. He studied at the University of Havana, where Raúl Roa García was one of his teachers. ¹

Bolaños entered the foreign ministry in 1963 after serving in the banking union. He credited Roa and Pelegrín Torras with encouraging that move. He rose to become a vice minister and later represented Cuba in Mexico for more than six years. At his 2007 farewell, he acknowledged the political tensions he had faced while seeking to sustain cooperation between the two countries. ^{1, 2}

As chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington from 2007 to 2012, Bolaños dealt with the opening months of Barack Obama’s presidency. He met Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon in April 2009 to discuss the easing of restrictions on Cuban American travel and remittances and possible further contact. The exchanges were exploratory, while American officials continued to press Havana over political prisoners and civil freedoms. ^{3, 4}

Bolaños retired after the Washington posting and was succeeded by Cabañas, who had earlier been his assistant. In his later recollections, Bolaños emphasized Roa’s influence on the training and political character of Cuba’s postrevolutionary diplomatic service. ^{4, 1}