Harry Belafonte, singer, composer, actor, activist and friend of Cuba, died today at the age of 96 in New York City, United States.

Born in that U.S. city and of Jamaican descent, Belafonte at the beginning of his career became known as the King of Calypso, and was the first black person allowed to perform in many upscale nightclubs, Cubadebate reported.
He also achieved racial advances in cinema at a time when segregation prevailed in much of the United States.

Committed to the cause against racial discrimination, he shared with Martin Luther King Jr., his personal friend, the struggle for civil rights in the United States in the early 1960s.

In the 1980s he became the driving force behind We Are the World, a celebrity-packed hit song that fought against famine, and he also worked to end apartheid in South Africa and coordinated Nelson Mandela's first visit to the United States.

He traveled the world as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in 1987 and later created an AIDS foundation. In 2014, he received an Oscar for his humanitarian work.

On July 23, 2020, the Cuban State awarded Harry Belafonte the Friendship Medal in recognition of his trajectory of solidarity with the island and his respect and admiration for the revolutionary process.

About his support to the Cuban people, Belafonte expressed in an interview in Havana: "I don't see it as a supreme effort, it is a way of life: if you believe in freedom, if you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, if you believe in people's rights, if you believe in the harmony of all humanity".