Diaz Canel attends memorial ceremony on proclamation of socialist character of the Revolution

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 16 (ACN) The people of Havana, with Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the country, recalled today the 63rd anniversary of the proclamation of the socialist character of the Revolution.

The people of the capital city recalled the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, who on the downtown corner of 23rd and 12th in Vedado said, on that historic April 16, 1961 -after the burial of the victims of the bombings of the previous day- that "this is the socialist and democratic Revolution, of the humble, with the humble and for the humble".

During the ceremony, Livan Izquierdo Alonso, first secretary of the PCC in Havana, expressed that Fidel's words, 63 years ago, were a combat order to defend the true independence conquered in January 1959.

That day marked the support of Havana residents and Cubans for the fallen in the bombing of the airports of Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba, and served as a public denunciation of the enemy's attempts to destroy the young Revolution, he said.

Izquierdo Alonso emphasized that the popular concentration of 23 and 12 indicated the irrevocable decision to advance towards the construction of socialism, as it happened in the following days when Cuba fought the mercenary invasion of Bay of Pigs.

We reach this anniversary at a difficult time for the Revolution in socioeconomic matters and within a cruel unconventional war to break the most sacred thing we have: unity, said the first secretary of the PCC in Havana.

At the end of the tribute, the Cuban President exclaimed "Long live free Cuba!".

Members of the Political Bureau Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the PCC; Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, Secretary General of the Cuban Workers' Federation, and Teresa Amarelle Boue, Secretary General of the Cuban Women's Federation, were present at the ceremony.

Also present were members from the Young Communist League, the Ministry of the Interior, the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution.