Today, Tuesday, Cuba honors more than 20,000 martyrs who fell fighting against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958), in the last stage of his liberation struggle, which was definitively victorious on January 1, 1959.
The commemoration recalls the murders, on a day like today in 1957, of Frank Paìs, head of the 26th of July Movement, and his comrade in arms, Raúl Pujols, in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.
The death of both young men goes down in national history as an abominable crime that inflamed the patriotic sentiment of the nation, and every year calls to mind the memory of more than 20,000 fallen for freeing Cuba from the excesses of the Batista regime.
Known by the pseudonym of David, among the clandestine troops, Frank País directed the sabotage actions of the insurgent movement in the streets of Santiago and answered to the leadership of Fidel Castro, from the eastern mountains.
On November 30, 1956, the young revolutionary leader led a popular uprising to support the arrival on the Cuban coast of 82 expeditionaries from the Granma yacht, coming from Mexico, headed by Fidel Castro.
The insurrection of the people of Santiago contributed to the survival in the Sierra Maestra of the guerrilla nucleus that in just two years dealt a crushing defeat to a numerous and better equipped professional army.
Regarding this anniversary, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, said that remembering the martyrs “has to be like an examination of conscience and of the conduct of each one of us, it has to be like a recounting of what has been done…”
“Because the moral torch – continued the commander in chief – the flame of purity that lit our Revolution, must be kept alive, it must be kept clean, it must be kept lit.”
