With a tribute to the memory of the eternal Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, on the 98th anniversary of his birth, a special morning session began this Monday, February 17, at the María Antonia Bolmey Rodríguez Primary semi-boarding school, where workers and students demanded the end of the economic, financial and commercial blockade that the United States government has maintained against Cuba for more than 60 years.
Lupe Isabel Fernández Ramírez, delegate of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (Icap in the Spanish acronym) in this province of Holguin, distinguished the example of Almeida, “a simple man, who suffered poverty, but, as he learned in his family to defend the rights of the dispossessed, he was among the first to combat the Batista tyranny, under the leadership of Fidel Castro.
«Assailant at the Moncada Barracks and political prisoner on the Isla de Pinos, he remained with Fidel in Mexico, participating in the Granma yacht expedition. He was among the founding officers of the Rebel Army and was head of the Third Eastern Front Mario Muñoz Monroy. After the victory of January 1959, he held several responsibilities, maintaining the simplicity that characterized him and taking advantage of his time to bond with the people, in addition to his intense literary work, consisting of more than 300 songs and a dozen published books, which make a significant contribution to the knowledge of the country’s history,” said the Icap delegate.
Lupe recognized that, thanks to the example of Almeida and so many other brave Cubans, throughout our national history, the people have been able to resist the consequences of the most brutal, illegal and prolonged blockade that any people has ever suffered; also thanking the support of friends, who make up the solidarity movement in all geographical regions of the planet.
He explained that, to demand the end of this imperial measure, it was approved at the People’s Summit, held in Panama, in 2015, to choose the 17th of each month as a Day of Actions against the Blockade, taking as a reference that date in December of the previous year, when three of the five anti-terrorist Heroes, who remained imprisoned in US prisons for more than 16 years, returned to the homeland.
These days, Lupe said, contribute to knowing the truth about the way in which the blockade hinders the economic and social development of the country, extended to the daily life of the population, in the face of the falsehood campaigns spread by the enemies, to try to subvert the internal order, create a situation of ungovernability and provoke the overthrow of the Cuban Revolution.
While the Icap delegate concluded the special morning, in which educators, pioneers and representatives of that community of the Lenin District honored Commander Juan Almeida, demanded the end of the blockade and reaffirmed the commitment to resistance to move forward, this journalist was reminded of the historic phrase of “we do not understand each other” pronounced by the Bronze Titan to his interlocutor, General Martínez Campos, in his virile Baraguá Protest; of Major General Calixto García with his determination, “either free forever or always fighting to be free”, and of Commander Almeida when, in Alegría de Pío, when faced with the invitation to surrender he launched that virile determination: “no one surrenders here, f…”.
By: Arnaldo Vargas Castro / Translated by Radio Angulo
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