The commemorative date, which is celebrated every December 2 in Cuba, was attended by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil, Cuban Ambassador Dagoberto Rodríguez, the accredited diplomatic corps and officials from the Bolivarian State.

Gil stated that with this event we have the opportunity to commemorate a revolutionary feat led by Fidel Castro (1926-2013), together with a group of revolutionaries who “gave their lives to start the liberation campaign.”

The head of Bolivarian diplomacy praised the fighting spirit of those men who laid the foundations of the Cuban Revolution, which inspired, since its birth on January 1, 1959, the struggle for imperialist liberation in various parts of the world.

He noted that coming to pay tribute to “the martyrs and victors who managed to build the Revolution will always be an honor.” Gil also sent a message of brotherhood, solidarity and commitment to the men and women who fight day after day to maintain the sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba.

On December 2, 1956, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, accompanied by 82 expedition members who traveled to Cuba on the Granma yacht, landed early in the morning on the coast of Las Coloradas, in the current province of Granma, in the eastern part of the country.

After a tortuous eight-day journey through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which delayed the initial landing plans, the young men arrived on Cuban soil under the slogan “we will be free or martyrs.”

Just three days later, disoriented, physically exhausted, first in the sea, in the mangroves, in the mud and after long walks among sugarcane fields, they were besieged by the air force and the Army of dictator Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958). The survivors regrouped and gave rise to the embryo of what would later become the Rebel Army, which after the victory in January merged with the rest of the revolutionary forces to give rise to the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) in 1961, which celebrates its day every December 2.

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