Cuban province pays tribute to the heroic deeds of 1957

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, September 2 (ACN) The people of the province of Cienfuegos are paying tribute these days to the 68th anniversary of the popular uprising of September 5, 1957 against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

The activities started with visits to the protagonists of the insurrection, whose actions in the almost a day-long rebellion that day deserved them the popular title of September 5th combatants.

In the days to come, they will engage in a Youth Route around the 11 plaques commemorating the date when young members of the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) and soldiers who sympathized with the revolutionary cause assaulted the army’s naval base located in this city.

There will also be a neighborhood debate organized by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution to share views with the September 5 combatants and a visit to the site, which is home today to Cienfuegos Naval Museum.

A political and cultural gala is also being planned for Thursday to salute the anniversary, whereas Friday morning will see the official ceremony and a pilgrimage to the Tomás Acea Cemetery, where those who fell in combat that day are buried.

The uprising organized by the M-26-7 and led by the people of Cienfuegos in 1957 did not achieve its military objective―seizing arms and opening a new military front in the mountains of central Cuba in support of the Rebel Army's fight in the Sierra Maestra mountains―but it exposed the cracks in tyrant Batista’s army, many of whose officers and soldiers joined the rebel struggles for the freedom of the homeland.