Havana, January 6 (JIT)-- Authorities of INDER and the Ministries of Education and Higher Education paid tribute this Saturday to José Ramón Fernández Álvarez, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, on the fifth anniversary of his death.

The emotional ceremony took place in the pantheon erected to the veterans of independence, in the Colon Necropolis, presided over by Jorge Luis Broche Lorenzo, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and head of its department of attention to the social sector.

A floral offering and the words of Roberto León Richards, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee, marked the meeting held early in the morning, which was also attended by Naima Trujillo, Minister of Education; Walter Baluja, Minister of Higher Education; and Osvaldo Vento Montiller, head of Inder.

"It is a very high privilege to evoke today in a special way the figure of José Ramón Fernández Álvarez, as a tireless soldier of the Revolution to which he devoted himself entirely since, as a very young man, he embraced the struggle against Batista's tyranny," said León Richards.

"On the fifth anniversary of his physical disappearance, we are honored to highlight the legacy of the fighter who became a Major General; of the example of loyalty to Fidel and Raul, of the Hero of the Republic of Cuba, of the participant in the leadership of the battles at Playa Giron under the orders of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution," he added.

The COC holder went through his broad link with sports and the high responsibilities assumed in the Ministries of Education and the Armed Forces, in the central government and as a director in the Olympic movement.

"His pedagogical thinking had expressions that still endure, marked by openness to conceptions tempered to our realities and the priority assigned to the role of management structures and cloisters, with which he always found formulas to exchange, as he did in all areas that welcomed his creative drive," Richards said.

"He was also characterized by his virtues as a sensitive, concerned, busy and organized man, a hard worker who never spared hours or days to do his best, an adoring father and husband, and an exponent of great humility," he said.