Cuba: Sancti Spiritus Honored Giron Victory

A large representation of the people of Sancti Spiritus, in central Cuba, celebrated the 51 anniversary of the victory of Playa Giron, and demanded the return of the Cuban Five imprisoned in the United States.

A large representation of the people of Sancti Spiritus, in central Cuba, celebrated the 51 anniversary of the victory of Playa Giron, with a concentration in the Monument to the Martyrs, where the crowd went on a pilgrimage to the Serafin Sanchez Square to honor the significant event and demand the return of the Cuban Five imprisoned in the United States.

There, in the same place where on January 6th, 1959, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro delivered a historic speech during a stopover on his way to Havana as head of the Freedom Caravan, veteran combatants of Giron, of Batista’s dictatorship and fighters of bandits met with the new generations and those who served in international missions to reaffirm the continuity of the principles behind the Revolution of Marti and Fidel.

During the rally, representatives of agencies and institutions paraded, while speeches alternated with musical performances and soloists that are part of the local artistic talent who performed renowned melodies such as La Victoria (The Victory), immortalized by Sara Gonzalez and Volvere (I will Return), poem set to music, by Antonio Guerrero.

Hector Rodriguez Mendez, representing the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, recalled those extraordinary moments, from the very treacherous attack at Cuban airports by Yankee planes from Central America, to Fidel’s speech at the farewell to the mortal victims of that evil deed in which he declared the socialist character of our revolution.

Then Rodriguez Mendez recalled the words of the Commander in Chief about the imminence of the mercenary invasion, declaring a state of alert and fight towards the “sons of Kennedy” until his final defeat in the afternoon of April 19th 1961, only 66 hours after the start of the landing. Hector paid tribute to the 156 combatants killed in homeland defense, among which he included seven people from Sancti Spiritus.

On behalf of the youth of the Cuban central province, Orlando de la Cruz Rivadeneira took the floor, and in his intervention, as in the past, the demand for the freedom of Gerardo, Ramon, Fernando and Antonio, who are imprisoned in the United States for opposing terrorism, was present, as well as for Rene, who has already served his unjust sentence and needs to finally return to his motherland.

The central words were made by Isidoro Rodriguez Gonzalez, member of the Provincial Bureau of Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) in Sancti Spiritus, who noted that the mercenary invasion marked a pivotal moment for the consolidation of the Cuban Revolution, exactly as Fidel had put it, because it helped the people of America to be a little freer.

Jose Ramon Monteagudo Ruiz, member of the Central Committee of Cuba’s Communist Party and First Secretary in Sancti Spiritus, Theresa Romero, president of the Provincial Assembly of the People’s Power, and Pedro Lopez Cabello, first secretary of PCC in the municipality, among other leaders of the Party, the Government, the Cuban Youth Union and other mass organizations participated in the parade and the rally.

The parade ended with a mass gathering and a political-cultural ceremony in the city’s main square.