Thousands of Havana residents ratified their willingness to die for the Revolution of the humble, with the humble and for the humble, at the same intersection of 23rd and 12th streets, where Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz gave a speech on April 16, 1961, in front of a crowd armed with rifles and summoned by the pain and indignation caused by the bombings of the airports in Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba the previous day.
After Fidel’s speech, they attended the funeral services of seven victims. The date was also declared Militiaman’s Day and one of the moments in which the founding idea of the Cuban Communist Party was forged.
On Tuesday, the cry Long live free Cuba! uttered by the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), Díaz-Canel, was a call to join forces to defend the social project and promote the prosperity of the Revolution.
Liván Izquierdo Alonso, first secretary of the PCC Provincial Committee in Havana, gave the keynote speech at the political-cultural event and evoked Fidel’s statements 63 years ago, which he described as an order of combat to defend the revolutionary triumph of 1959.
On behalf of the internationalist combatants, Reserve Captain Pastor Cantero Echazábal pointed out that on April 15 and 16, 1961, Cubans learned about the mercenary attacks on Playa Girón and Playa Larga (Bay of Pigs), where the people expressed their support for Fidel and the revolutionary process.
Also present at the ceremony on Tuesday were Roberto Morales Ojeda, member of the Political Bureau and secretary of Organization of the PCC Central Committee; Havana Governor Yanet Hernández Pérez, and other leaders and officials, as well as combatants and militiamen who participated in the Playa Girón feat.
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