By Syara Salado Massip and Victor Villalba Gutiérrez on July 26, 2024 / Resumen Latinoamericano
photo: Victor Villalba Gutiérrez
The province of Sancti Spíritus, located in central Cuba, hosted the ceremony marking the 71st anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks.
July 26, National Rebellion Day, is celebrated on the island to pay tribute to the Moncada fighters and reaffirm the commitment of the. people and the current generations with the Revolution and that group of young Cubans of the Centennial Generation who, inspired by Martí, carried out the armed action of taking by assault two military barracks of the Batista tyranny, in the east of the country, with the objective of unleashing the armed struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958). With enormous courage, patriotism and dignity, the young assailants participating in the action endured the torture, preserving the life of Fidel, maximum leader of the armed action together with Abel Santamaría. The survivors were arrested, tried and sentenced to prison.
The crimes committed in those days by the regime were denounced by Fidel in his self-defense plea “History will absolve me”. The action, which did not succeed at that moment, had an extraordinary transcendence for the Cuban people, giving birth to the 26th of July Movement, which would mark the path of the emancipation of Cuba’s independence.
Each year a territory is designated as the venue for the central activities, in recognition of the outstanding work, development, consolidation and advancement of the work of the Revolution.
On this occasion, the province of Sancti Spíritus was chosen for the third time, since it previously hosted the commemoration in July 1986 in the presence of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and 30 years later, in 2016, the event was presided over by Army General Raúl Castro.
The ceremony was held at the Plaza de la Revolución Mayor General Serafín Sánchez Valdivia, with the presence of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez and the leader of the Revolution Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, accompanied by Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, Commander of the Revolution and assailant of the Moncada, and José Ramón Machado Ventura, Commander of the Rebel Army. Present were members of the Councils of State and Ministers, leaders of mass organizations, authorities of the province of Espiritu, relatives of martyrs and friends of solidarity. Together with them, more than five thousand people of Espiritu representing the people, celebrating and remembering that epic.
Deivy Pérez, first Secretary in the province and member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, highlighted the tenacity of the people of Espiritu, in the effort for work, development and overcoming difficulties, in that land of mambises that honors the Hero of the Three Wars of Independence Serafín who, wounded to death, said: “They will follow the March”.
He evoked the three assailants of July 26 in the province of Sancti Spiritus: Remberto Abad Aleman, killed in the action, Antonio Dario Lopez and Ricardo Santana, survivors of the libertarian deed.
The member of the Political Bureau of the Party and Vice President of the Republic, Salvador Valdes Mesa headed the opening remarks with the phrase: “For Fidel the first thought”, thus evoking the leader of the Cuban Revolution. He also reaffirmed the will to defend the Revolution against the aggressiveness of the United States “No matter how much the enemy tries to hide it, any honest person, even if he does not share our ideas, understands that the intensified blockade, together with the rest of the aggressive measures implemented against Cuba by the government of the United States, constitutes the fundamental cause of the current economic difficulties, with inevitable incidence in all spheres of society”.
The event culminated with a magnificent artistic performance, accompanied by music and dance, showing the most autochthonous of the Cuban and Spiritan culture. This is a date that implies for all Cubans a moment of reaffirmation and commitment to continue making the Moncada program a reality.
Source: Cuba in Resumen