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Thousands in Cuba march with torches to remember national hero

Havana, Jan 27 (EFE).- Several thousand young people, led by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and his predecessor Raul Castro, participated Saturday in the traditional torch march to commemorate the 171st anniversary of the birth of the country’s hero Jose Marti.

The traditional night procession started after 8:00pm local time (01:00 GMT, Sunday) at the steps of the University of Havana between Cuban flags and slogans in favor of the revolution and its leader, former President Fidel Castro.

“Marti guides and will continue to guide the soul of the nation. Marti lives,” Diaz-Canel wrote on social media.

The delegation descended walking just over 1 kilometer, winding through the city, to the so-called Fragua Martiana, a monument that commemorates the writer and national leader in the place where he was imprisoned for his independence activities.

Among those who walked in the front row, between officials of the Cuban government and the country’s communist party – the country’s only legal political formation – were the three greatest living representatives of the revolution along with Raul Castro. They were namely, Ramiro Valdes, Guillermo Garcia Frias and Jose Ramon Machado Ventura.

This was especially significant because there are very few occasions in which the four coincide in public events – they are all over 90 – and because on Jan. 1 Castro made a call for unity amid the severe crisis the country is experiencing.

Throughout the day, different tributes to Marti were celebrated in the country.

The Torch March, an initiative of late President Fidel Castro, is one of the main mass events convened by the Federation of University Students and the Union of Young Communists, two organizations in the orbit of the party, throughout the year.

At midnight on Jan. 27, 1953, the first Torch March took place in memory of Marti on the occasion of the centenary of his birth. Fidel and Raul Castro were both present at the event. EFE

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