President Díaz-Canel evokes Cuba's first machete charge

Havana, October 26 (RHC)-- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Wednesday evoked the first machete charge carried out by the Mambi forces on a day like today in 1868, when the first actions of the Ten Years' War began.

Through his Twitter profile, the president recalled the epic that took place in Pinos de Baire, belonging to the Santiago municipality of Contramaestre, and assumed as part of the struggles for the independence of the Caribbean nation from Spanish rule.

He also alluded to the constitution in 1959 of the National Revolutionary Militias (MNR) by leader Fidel Castro, with the aim of defending the island against threats of military aggression and attacks by terrorist groups, financed from the United States.

In his words, the leader explained the reason for arming the people: "our cause is just (...) we do not want to harm anyone, nor does anyone have the right to harm us (...) we proclaim that we do not fear anything or anyone, we do not fear the measures that are plotted against us (...)".

Before his departure to the then province of Camagüey, with the purpose of facing the betrayal of Rebel Army chiefs in the region, Commander Camilo Cienfuegos addressed the citizens of the Caribbean nation for the last time, before he was lost at sea two days later.

The man known as the Hero of Yaguajay said on that occasion that "to stop this Cuban Revolution, an entire people would have to die and if that were to happen, the verses of Bonifacio Byrne would be a reality: if my flag were to be torn into tiny pieces/ one day my flag would be seen/ our dead, raising their arms/ will still know how to defend it".