Quito, September 28 (RHC)-- A Cuban Communist Party delegation is in Ecuador to participate at the 2nd Latin American and Progressive Forum, which got underway on Monday in the South American nation.

The group is headed by Jose Ramon Balaquer, member of the Secretariat of Cuba's Communist Party Central Committee and head of the Foreign Relations Department of the political organization.

The delegation includes the president of the Cuban Friendship Institute, ICAP, Kenia Serrano, and Francisco Delgado, an official with the Communist Party. They all were welcomed at Quito´s International Airport by Cuban Ambassador to Ecuador Jorge Rodriguez and Cuban health workers in that country.

On Sunday, Balaguer met with members of the Cuban medical brigade and attended commemorations at the Cuban embassy in Quito for the 55th anniversary of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the largest Cuban grassroots organization.

Present at the activity were the Cuban Five -- Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, who served long and unfair sentences in U.S. jails -- and Colonel Orlando Cardoso, who was taken prisoner while fighting in Ethiopia and imprisoned for 11 years in Somalia.

The six Heroes of the Republic of Cuba arrived in Ecuador last Thursday at the invitation of President Rafael Correa and will also participate at the leftist forum, which will gather representatives of over 60 parties and political movements from Latin America, Europe and Asia.