The president of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, celebrated today the 63rd anniversary of the first visit to Caracas by the Cuban leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016), after the triumph of the Revolution on the Caribbean island in January 1959.
“63 years have passed since the first visit of Commander Fidel Castro to our country. That memorable day, the People received the Cuban hero in an emotional act, with admiration for his struggle. Fidel is inspiration and moral force for revolutionaries,” Maduro wrote on his Twitter social network account.
A dispatch from the Prensa Latina news agency indicates that Fidel arrived on January 23, 1959 on Venezuelan soil, in the midst of the celebrations for the first anniversary of the overthrow of the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.
The Cuban revolutionary leader was received at the Maiquetía airport by a popular crowd, including the president of the Patriotic Board that forged the overthrow of the dictatorial regime, Fabricio Ojeda, among other personalities.
During his stay in the South American nation, Fidel spoke to Venezuelans in the Plaza del Silencio and made speeches in the main hall of the Central University of Venezuela and in the Congress of the Republic, in addition to meeting with then president Rómulo Betancourt.
“Because for me the entry into Caracas was more exciting than the entry into Havana,” said the Cuban leader on January 23, 1959 in his words to the people.
