Havana, July 6 (RHC)-- Relatives, combatants and a representation of the Cuban people participated Thursday in the funeral honors of Máximo Ramón Jaureguí Díaz, Cuban martyr of Washington's Bay of Pigs invasion (April 1961), whose remains found in 2019 were recently identified by experts.

In the museum dedicated to preserving the memory of the deed, a heartfelt tribute was paid to the young militiaman, a member of the 339th Battalion of Cienfuegos (south-central Cuba), who was 20 years old when he was machine-gunned to death by the enemy during the mercenary invasion financed by the United States.

Members of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution in Matanzas province began the honor guard during the ceremony, which was also joined by authorities of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and National Assembly of People's Power.

"This impresses me a lot, to identify at this time a comrade that we were missing, I think we can find the others, this is our History and we have to know it well," Peñafor Gallo Cuellar, an 86-year-old veteran of Playa Giron, told the Cuban News Agency.

"I was a militia chief when the invasion began.  We saw some lights in the bay and they were the mercenaries.  A comrade of mine missed a shot and they responded with a bazooka, then we shot them in the dark," he recalled.

A temporary exhibition was inaugurated in the Museum, with pieces found next to the remains of the militiaman in a sector under repair adjacent to the Playa Giron Hotel, near the sea, while a hydraulic ditch was being undertaken.

Dulce María Limonta del Pozo, director of the institution, said that for a few weeks the public will be able to appreciate elements such as the armament card, the National Revolutionary Militias document holder, and the remains of the military cloak with which the corpse was wrapped.

Yosveny Verdeal Castellanos, member of the provincial bureau of the PCC in Matanzas, said goodbye to the fallen combatant on April 17, 1961 in this historical scenario, highlighted the humble origin of his family, in which five men fought against the mercenaries, and praised the work of the scientific team in his identification.

After the conclusion of the funeral honors, the transfer of the remains of the young hero to Cienfuegos began, where the citizens will have the opportunity to pay homage to him, and he will be buried in the pantheon of the fallen in Girón, in the Tomás Acea cemetery.