Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta

HAVANA (Reuters – Ricardo Alarcon is one of Cuba’s most prominent men and a crucial player in U.S. relations, according to his family.

He was a former diplomat and one of the original architects of Washington-Havana’s first migratory conversation in 1978. This year, negotiations began also with members of Cuban communities in the United States.

Alarcon had a major role in the negotiations of an agreement on immigration with the United States. This deal ended a mass exodus from Cuba by sea that occurred in 1994. Alarcon was instrumental in the arrangement of Elian Gonzalez, a young Cuban castaway, being returned to Cuba by his family in Miami in 2000.

Alarcon was rum-sipping, cigar-puffing, and always wore a white Guayabera. He became, at one time, the third-most powerful person in the Communist Party after Raul Castro and Fidel Castro.

Between 1992 and 1993, he served as foreign minister. He then was president of the National Assembly from 1993 to 1994.

Alarcon was not given any reason for his fall from grace. However, Miguel Alvarez who had been Alarcon’s closest friend, was arrested in the past year as a U.S spy. It is standard practice to take into account all compromised contacts.

Alarcon was a loyal Revolutionary member despite his political fall.

“To Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada the Master among the diplomats our generation, will we always have deep respect. admiration. and infinite affection,” Josefina Viel, Deputy Foreign Minister, tweeted Sunday. Videl was Cuba’s chief negotiator under the former U.S. president Barack Obama.

Alarcon was born May 21, 1937. Alarcon was a member of the revolutionary July 26 Movement from a young age. It overthrew Fulgencio batista, a U.S-backed dictator.

Alarcon was then a leader of both the University Student Federation, and later the Union of Young Communists. This is the youth arm of Alarcon’s ruling Communist Party.

Alarcon was the head of the Parliament during his time. He played a key role in the campaign to free five Cuban intelligence officers who were serving lengthy prison sentences in America for spying.