Orlando Fundora López

One of the founders and first directors of Radio Habana Cuba, Orlando Fundora López, where he worked as Head of the Central Editorial Office and Director General in the nineteen sixties. He was a leader of the Communist Party of Cuba. Upon his death, Fundora was Honorary President of the World Peace Council.

For Orlando Fundora, his tenure at Radio Habana Cuba constituted an extremely valuable and useful experience for his subsequent work in media relations from the Communist Party of Cuba.

He began his revolutionary activities participating in student struggles at the Secondary Education Institute and at the School of Commerce in the city of Santa Clara. Starting in 1945 he worked at the Royal Bank of Canada in Havana. In the different centers where he worked, he was a union and banking leader.

In 1954 he joined the Movement of July 26th and was one of the organizers of this group in the banking sector. He led strikes against the Batista regime in 1955 and 1957, a period during which he was detained on six occasions. Exiled in Venezuela between 1957 and 1959, he collaborated with that country's revolutionary movement until he was detained by Venezuelan National Security.

At the end of 1959 he began working at Unión Radio and later became director of the radio station. He participated as a war correspondent during the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón. In 1961 he was appointed chief editor of the Central Editorial Office, then subdirector and finally director of Radio Habana Cuba. Five years later he was promoted to the External Relations Commission of the Central Committee of the Party as head of Information and at the same time director of the Prensa Latina agency. 

From February 1973 he served as head of the Revolutionary Orientation department of the Central Committee.

He traveled to several countries on special missions. In 1985 he was appointed president of the Cuban Movement for Peace and the Sovereignty of Peoples, a position from which he was relieved due to health problems in 2006.

For his life dedicated to defending revolutionary achievements, he was decorated and received other recognitions.

Fundora died in Havana at the age of 89 after a prolonged illness.