Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, led the political act and military ceremony this Sunday at the mausoleum of El Cacahual, marking the 129th anniversary of the death in combat of Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo Grajales and his aide, Captain Panchito Gómez Toro, sources from the Presidency confirmed.

The commemoration also included a tribute for the 36th anniversary of Operation Tribute, which honored fallen Cuban internationalists in sister nations.

Roberto Morales Ojeda, Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba; Álvaro López Miera, Corps General of the Army and Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR); Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, Corps General of the Army and Minister of the Interior (Minint); and José Amado Ricardo Guerra, Secretary of the Council of Ministers, participated in the ceremony.

Also in attendance were representatives of the Union of Young Communists, student organizations, combatants from the FAR and Minint, relatives of the fallen, and members of the military diplomatic corps accredited in Cuba.

Floral offerings were laid on behalf of the people at the tombs of Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo Grajales, Captain Panchito Gómez Toro, Juan Fajardo Vega—known as the last mambí—and historic leader Blas Roca Calderío.

Daileris Verdecia, a young pioneer and national winner of the "Friends of the FAR" contest, stated that "the greatest value is to give one's life for what one loves," reaffirming the youth's commitment to the ideals of the Homeland.

Brayan Hidalgo Torres, a cadet from the General Antonio Maceo Inter-Service Academy, asserted that "as heirs to our people's traditions of struggle, we will not let the flag fall."

José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz, member of the Party's Central Committee and head of its Food and Agriculture Department, emphasized that Maceo was a military genius and revolutionary of solid principles, whose Protest of Baraguá saved the flag and the independence cause.

Monteagudo also recalled Operation Tribute and the Cuban internationalists who died defending the Revolution's most sacred values, buried in the Homeland 36 years ago.

The Party leader stressed that, in the face of the tightening of the United States' economic, commercial, and financial blockade and imperialist hostility, Maceo's legacy calls for unity and firm struggle. "There is no room for concessions to the enemy. Unity is our strategic weapon," he affirmed.