![](/articles/cropped/OkVz-24662187-1d0h-84270218-homenaje-felipe-guerra-matos.jpg)
Havana, February 13 (PL) -- Floral offerings from the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Raúl Castro, and President Miguel Díaz-Canel, paid tribute today to Felipe Guerra Matos, a promoter of revolutionary sports in Cuba.
Guerra Matos died on February 10th, at the age of 96, due to acute respiratory failure.
Guerrita, as he was affectlonately known, received this Tuesday the last farewell from his relatives, fellow fighters, combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and representatives of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation at the Pantheon of Veterans of the Colon Necropolis.
On January 13, 1959, Guerra Matos was chosen by the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, to head the General Directorate of Sports.
From that moment on, the guerrilla captain, who was born in 1927 in Manzanillo, today's eastern province of Granma, was summoned several times by the historic leader, who, in spite of 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 make the ideas and intentions of the revolution in this area a reality.