Fidel and the Freedom Caravan
Pinar del Río, January 17 (RHC) Outstanding students and workers, artists, and combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of Interior will re-enact today the Freedom Caravan.
The main objective of the new generations is to honor Fidel Castro, Chief of the Cuban Revolution, who led the march at the head of the Rebel Army after the January triumph 64 years ago, said Leyanis Carmona, first secretary of the Young Communist Union in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio. The caravan will start its way through the southern municipality of Los Palacios.
We will follow the traditional route, we will stop in Consolación del Sur, and then we will pay tribute to Eliseo Reyes, a revolutionary fighter known as Captain San Luis in the Sierra Maestra, and Rolando, in Che Guevara's guerrilla, at the monument that perpetuates his memory at the entrance of the city of Pinar del Río, he added.
After 8:00 p.m. local time, the young people will arrive at the intersection of José Martí and Rafael Ferro streets, in the heart of the city, where Fidel Castro addressed the people on January 17, 1959.
The site is decorated with Cuban and 26th of July flags. In one of the neighboring buildings, a fence highlights the dedication that the revolutionary leader addressed to the people through the pages of a magazine of the time.
On an improvised platform, Fidel explained that for several days he had to stay in Havana, but such was the revolutionary fervor of this province "that during the journey between Oriente and Havana, many comrades asked me to come to Pinar del Rio.
January 17 has a special significance for the western province of Pinar del Río, identified before the revolutionary triumph as Cuba´s Cinderella because of the backwardness and neglect to which it was subjected. Since then, the region changed its rags and began to walk for the benefit of its men and women.
The Freedom Caravan was launched by Fidel Castro and the members of the Rebel Army after the victory on January 1, 1959. Every year, Cuba re-enacts that victory march. (Source: PL)
