Cuban leaders pay tribute to José Martí in Santiago de Cuba

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba, Feb 24 (ACN) Army General Raúl Castro and President Miguel Díaz-Canel laid floral tributes today at the grave of Cuban National Hero José Martí on the 127th anniversary of the resumption of the war for independence.

Esteban Lazo, president of the Parliament, also laid a wreath before the crypt that keeps Martí's remains in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in this city in honor of the main architect of the Necessary War (1895-1898).

José Ramón Monteagudo, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) in the province of Santiago de Cuba and provincial governor Beatriz Johnson, conducted the tribute to the National Hero, who worked so hard for revolutionary unity in Cuba and abroad.

The highest authorities of the region also laid flowers at the funeral monuments to the founding fathers of the nation, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Mariana Grajales, and before the monolith that keeps the ashes of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.

Students of the Camilo Cienfuegos Military School of the city of Santiago de Cuba made up the Guard of Honor at the mausoleum that provides a well-deserved resting place to the Apostle of the Cuban independence, inaugurated on June 30, 1951.

The Cry de Baire, as the February 24, 1895 call to arms is known, symbolized the continuity of the struggle for Cuba’s freedom after four centuries of Spanish rule and the reaffirmation of the Cuban people’s will prevent the expansion of the United States across Latin America.