Cuba commemorates 63rd anniversary of Granma yacht landing

Cuba commemorates today the Day of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and the 63rd anniversary of the landing of the Granma yacht, with the latter beginning the armed struggle that would culminate in the revolutionary victory of 1959.

On December 2, 1956, the 82 Granma expeditionaries, led by Fidel Castro, touched Cuban land after departing days before, on November 25, from the Mexican port of Tuxpan.

The purpose was to command the armed struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959) until it was overthrown.

Historiography shows that, despite the adversities, the group of young people regrouped after being surprised and dispersed by the army troops of the Fulgenio Batista dictatorship.

The expeditionaries, helped by the peasants of the Sierra Maestra, formed the nucleus of the future Rebel Army and began the struggle in the mountains of eastern Cuba until it triumphed on January 1st, 1959.

In honor of that date, the FAR was founded in 1961.