Cuban President Attends Ceremony for International Student Day

Havana, Nov 17 (ACN) — Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel attended the central ceremony for International Students’ Day at the Aula Magna of the University of Havana (UH) on Monday.

All Cubans marked the date as they recalled the speech delivered, 20 years ago, in that same venue by Revolution leader Fidel Castro Ruz on November 17, 2005, in which he warned of the risks facing the revolutionary process and how it could be destroyed from within.

Ahead of ceremony, representatives of the Federation of University Students (FEU), the Federation of High School Students (FEEM), and the Young Communist League (UJC) laid a floral wreath at the monument that treasures the ashes of student leader Julio Antonio Mella (1903–1929). There, they reflected on the complexities and responsibilities of being young in today’s Cuba.

The commemoration recalled the cause of the Czech students who were arrested on this date in 1939 by Nazi occupation forces and were later killed or sent to concentration camps.

Accompanying the president were the members of the Communist Party’s Political Bureau Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister of the Republic; and Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization; as well as Mirian Nicado García, rector of the University of Havana. Also attending as a special guest was José Ramón Machado Ventura, Commander of the Rebel Army, along with other members of the Central Committee, the UJC, and the university community.