Havana, February 11 (JIT)-- "We are shocked to learn of the death of Rebel Army Captain Felipe Guerra Matos, to whom Fidel assigned the General Directorate of Sports a few days after the triumph of the Revolution. Committed to the work he started, we share the grief of family and friends".

So wrote today on the social network X the president of INDER, Osvaldo Vento Montiller.

"Our condolences to family and friends of Felipe Guerra Matos, whose passing we deeply regret. His bond with Cuban Sport was solid and permanent, to which he paid tribute with passion, beyond his years as a director of the sector," the Cuban Olympic Committee quotes on Facebook.

"We accompany in their grief the family and friends of Felipe Guerra Matos, who led the beginning of the transformations conceived by Fidel for the revolutionary sport. His loyalty and commitment are a permanent inspiration for Inder," that institution posted.

On January 13, 1959, "Guerrita", as he was called by family and friends, was chosen by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz to lead the General Directorate of Sports (DGD).

From that moment on, the manzanillero born in 1926 was summoned several times by the Historical Leader of the Cuban Revolution, who despite many other obligations, reserved time to draw up strategies for sports.

Guerrita had the titanic task of putting in order and launching the organizational, participatory and competitive framework of national sports, and simultaneously realize the ideas and intentions of the Revolution in this area.

This required taking sports to all corners of the country, facilitating the development of the people's physical conditions, the healthy practice and competition, and the enjoyment of the spectacle offered by the different sports.

Guerra Matos was witness and main executor of a key concept of Fidel: "We are determined to promote sports at all costs, to take it as far as possible...".

The man from Marabuzal, loyal to Fidel since his days in the 26th of July Movement, leaves the mark of a distinguished patriot.His tremendous trajectory includes the transfer of the American journalist Herbert Matthews, reporter of The New York Times, for his meeting with Fidel.

His work is in every medal, every performance of Cuban sports, in every young person who proudly enjoys the national anthem, on a podium, or simply as part of a delegation.The sports movement shares the pain of family, friends and comrades in struggle.