Cuban president recalls Camilo Cienfuegos’s legacy

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel recalled the qualities of the guerrilla leader Camilo Cienfuegos, one of the most charismatic and brave commanders of the Rebel Army, on his 92nd birthday on Tuesday.

On his X account, the head of State highlighted Camilo Cienfuegos’s cheerful personality, as well as his identification with the Cuban people and, especially his youth.

“Camilo is the people. He is commitment to the values that made him a Symbol of Cuban youth. It is a day to celebrate that he was born in our same land and bequeathed to us his proud Cuban identity,” Díaz-Canel wrote.

Other Cuban leaders remembered the life of the guerrilla commander, repository of the trust of the maximum leader of that feat, Fidel Castro, due to his recklessness and sacrifices in the fights against the Fulgencio Batista tyranny (1952-1958).

The historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, stated that Camilo Cienfuegos loved difficulties, knew how to face them and was capable of performing feats in the most incredible circumstances, an X user recalled.

The president of the National People’s Power Assembly (Parliament), Esteban Lazo, expressed his conviction that “in the Cuban people there are many Camilos, whose legacy is valid in the Homeland,” he stated.

Lazo reaffirmed a sentence by Ernesto Guevara, another icon of the last stage of the fight for independence, who said, “He (Cienfuegos) was, indisputably, the most brilliant of all the guerrillas” of the Rebel Army.

Born on this day in 1932, and physically disappeared on October 28, 1959, Camilo participated in the Granma Yacht expedition and rose to commander of the Rebel Army in the eastern mountain ranges in the midst of the war against the Bastita military.

After the victory on January 1, 1959, he was promoted to Chief of the General Staff of the Rebel Army and died in a plane accident while returning from a mission in eastern Camagüey province.