Santiago de Cuba, July 30 (RHC)-- This Tuesday Cuba is observing the Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution. The date remembers the brutal assassination by the Batista Dictatorship henchmen of the underground leader Frank Pais and his comrade Raul Pujol on July 30, 1957 in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.

Early this Tuesday local residents and leaders of the city placed l a floral wreath on the site where the assassination occurred. Frank Pais, who was 22 years old when he was killed, was the National Action and Sabotage Chief of the 26 of July Movement.

Pais and Pujol’s funeral processions elicited a huge crowd of people from all walks of life, religious and political creeds in an open and daring defiance to the dictatorship forces. After the triumph of the Revolution in 1959, July 30 was chosen to pay homage to all those who got killed in the last liberation struggle.

Every year, thousands of santiagueros participate in a pilgrimage to the Santa Ifigenia cemetery, to pay tribute to Pais and Pujol.

Party and government leaders, representatives of the Trade Union Federation and of the Revolutionary Armed Forces will join the local residents in this yearly commemoration, departing from Santiago’s Céspedes Park, and following the same route that the funeral processions followed 62 years ago.