Tribute in Mexico to Fidel Castro

A tribute to the Cuban revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, Mexicans paid Saturday in the auditorium Ernesto Velasco, of the electricians'' union, on occasion of the 93rd anniversary of his birth that will be celebrated next Tuesday.

The ceeremony in his honor was organized by the Resistance and Rebellion Networks, Support Networks for the Indigenous Government Council, the Mexican Union of Electricians and the Solidarity Movement with Cuba.

A presentation by Mexican academics Alberto Hijar, Alicia Castellanos and Gilberto López, and the political advisor of the Cuban embassy, José Alberto Prieto, opened the tribute also attended by Venezuelan diplomats.

After the references to the life and work of Fidel, folk dance groups, poets, singer-songwriters, troubadours and musical groups, performed on the spacious stage of the union, in which lobby a photographic exhibition was inaugurated.

The academics divided their exhibitions into four main themes related to the importance of Fidel Castro's political thinking today, his life and work, the ideological definitions and his vocation as a full-time revolutionary, and the socialist conception in Cuba.

The idea that prevailed among the speakers was that Fidel lives through his ideas and his political thinking, like José Martí's, is more valid than ever and that, without a doubt, he is the revolutionary and statesman with greatest relevance in the real world.

Recalling the presence of the Cuban leader in Mexico, participants recounted passages from the preparations for the necessary war, the military training, the house of María Antonia as a meeting place, and among the memories arose anecdotes of Antonio del Conde 'El Cuate' and the acquisition of the Granma yacht that set sail from Tuxpan with 82 expedition members to start the war in the Sierra Maestra.

The role of Fidel in confronting the aggressions of the United States after the triumph of the Revolution and events that set the tone in Cuba and in the world were also highlighted.

They recalled the invasion by Playa Giron, the rocket crisis in October 1962, the persistent blockade and criminal actions such as the introduction of viruses that caused deaths and economic damage such as dengue and hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, or swine fever.

Prieto thanked in Cuba's name the lectures of academics and praised how in such a short space of time they made a historical tour from the assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953 until the physical disappearance of Fidel on November 25, 2016.