By Jorge Ernesto Angulo Leiva onApril 16, 2025
photos: Ricardo López Hevia
“A cry of rebellion and hope rang out loudly on April 16, 1961,” proclaimed Liván Izquierdo Alonso, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and its first secretary in Havana, describing the proclamation of the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution.
At the ceremony marking the 64th anniversary of that event, presided over by the First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, and by Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of Organization of the Central Committee, the significance of that declaration was highlighted, demonstrating the growth of political consciousness and the reaffirmation of national sovereignty, nourished by the sacrifice of young people such as Eduardo García Delgado, immortalized for writing the name of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz with his blood.
Izquierdo Alonso pointed to the commitment to socialism, and the pride we Cubans have in the the ability to face enormous obstacles. We are aware of the strength contained in the people and the need to maintain the Party as the wall against which attempts to undermine unity crash, he said.
President Diaz Canel and others celebrate the 64th anniversary of Cuba declaring itself socialist.
Dr. Mery Leydi Torres Lahera defended her profession in the face of worsening persecution and the rise of slander against Cuba’s international medical cooperation agreements, actions promoted by the United States attempting to pressure countries. The campaign of the US through false allegations is contrary to international law and ignores the health needs of poorer countries around the world .
“US Secretary of State Marco Rubio cares little about the working conditions of the island’s doctors. He is motivated by an interest in justifying the economic war against Cuba, affecting health services, and cutting off legitimate means of livelihood”, she said.
Torres Lahera added. “We do not wield swords, but stethoscopes that listen to the echo of human resistance in its most beautiful and strongest version.”
The Revolution transformed health care into a fundamental right, we trained doctors with a deep sense of humanity and sent them to those most in need, with more than 600,000 collaborators in our brigades. “Fidel taught us that medicine is not only science, but also our collective conscience,” he recalled.
The evening featured audiovisual testimonies from combatants who participated in the battle with the invaders at Playa Girón, hours after raising their rifles between 23rd and 12th streets in Havana, in response to the Commander-in-Chief’s call to repel an imminent aggression, which became the first defeat of US imperialism in its supposed “backyard” of Latin America.
Source: Granma, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English