In the activity, the figure of Captain Roberto Rodríguez, El Vaquerito, was highlighted, who fell in combat on a day like today in front of the political station of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and of whom Che, upon feeling that he was dead, exclaimed : “A hundred men have killed me.”

There was also talk about the derailment and surrender of the armored train of the Batista army, on December 29, 1958 by the troops of column 8 Ciro Redondo and in which the Argentine-Cuban commander Ernesto Guevara had direct participation.

The commander of the rebel army Víctor Dreke, present at this Saturday’s event, was one of the architects of the seizure of barracks 31, a combat that culminated on January 1, 1959 after the surrender of more than 250 guards equipped with war tanks.

Che, together with Aleida March and other combatants, toured the city in the middle of the shooting and once he had achieved victory, as Minister of Industries, he returned to found factories such as the Fabric Aguilar Mechanical Plant, the Inpud ¨Primero de Mayo¨ Household Utensils Industry, the Neftalí Martínez spark plugs in Sagua la Grande and other social development plans.

The first secretary of the Communist Party in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, Osnay Miguel Colina, highlighted in the central words the heroism of Che Guevara’s combatants in taking a city in less than five days.

He recalled that in the action, around 300 rebels surrendered more than a thousand soldiers of the tyranny and where Commander Guevara’s combat strategy shone.

During the activity, which was also attended by Aleida Guevara, Che’s daughter, combatants from the Battle of Santa Clara, professionals and outstanding workers were honored and the distinction was given to this city as the most outstanding in the emulation for the 35th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

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