Cuban Hero Pays Tribute to Allende and Missing People in Chile

Cuban hero Fernando Gonzalez Llort on Sunday paid tribute to Salvador Allende, the missing and executed people for political reasons and Chilean international combatants killed in action.

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During a visit to the General Cemetery of Recoleta, in this capital, Gonzalez Llort, one of five Cuban antiterrorist fighters who held lengthy prison times in the United States, laid a wreath at Allende's Mausoleum.

"I was ten years old when I learn about the coup d'état in Chile on September 11, 1973, which ended the hopes and lives of many Chileans. I keep in my mind the vivid images of the bombing on La Moneda and Allende's death," he said.

González Llort noted that it was a privilege on behalf of the Cuban Five to remember the president of the Popular Unity Government, a great friend of Cuba and of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.

"I feel much emotion to be here before the mortal remains of the man who gave Fidel a very affectionate embrace and who allowed our Commander in Chief to pay an extensive visit to Chile, as proof of his interest in Chile, he recalled.

Accompanied by Recoleta Mayor Daniel Jadue, Cuban Ambassador to Chile Adolfo Curbelo, leaders of solidarity groups and Cuban residents here, Gonzalez Llort also visited the tomb of Gladys Marin.

After visiting the mausoleum of the former leader of the Communist Party of Chile, the Gonzalez Llort, who is also the vice president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), also stopped at the monument to the Internationalist Combatants for Love and Hope.

At the end of his stay at the General Cemetery, he visited the impressive Memorial to the Political Executed and Missing Detainees (more than 3,500) during the Augusto Pinochet Dictatorship (1973-1990).

There, Lorena Pizarro, president of the Association of Relatives of the Missing Detainees in Chile, noted that welcoming one of the Cuban Five means to recuperate again the convictions in the success of many battles.

"When we learned about your return, Fernando, and the four other comrades, it was like an award to hope, resistance and the fight. It was a retribution to the sacrifices of the Revolution and Fidel's extraordinary vision," she noted.

After laying a wreath at the Memorial, Gonzalez Llort received an explanation about what happened in Chile during the dictatorship and the many pending issues to prevent State terrorism from returning.

Pizarro noted that the situation in Chile is complicated, due to the lack of political will to address such a big wound that most people still suffers, with determination.