Havana, September 28 (RHC)-- Cuban revolutionary Jorge Risquet Valdés-Saldaña died of cancer Monday morning in Havana at the age of 85.

In 1943, at the age of 13, Risquet joined the revolutionary youth movement, in which he carried out responsibilities as a member of Socialist Youth and of the People's Socialist Party. He served as chief editor of the newspaper “Mella”, and secretary general of the Socialist Youth's National Committee.

Before the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, he was arrested on several occasions for his revolutionary activities. Henchmen of the Batista dictatorship kidnapped and tortured him and in 1958, he joined the Rebel Army as a combatant with the “Frank País” Second Eastern Front.

After 1959, Jorge Risquet represented Cuba and Latin America at the World Federation of Democratic Youth. A founder of the Cuban Communist Party, Risquet led the Cuban delegation at the tripartite negotiations that led to the independence of Angola and several other African countries from South Africa's Apartheid regime.