Thousands of people staged this Friday night the traditional torchlight march in Havana, which this time commemorated the 170th anniversary of the birth of Jose Marti.
The event, which as usual began on the steps of the Havana University, was headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel and his predecessor, Raúl Castro, together with other Cuban authorities.
The traditional nocturnal procession descended a little over a kilometer from the house of high studies to the Fragua Martiana, a monument that remembers the writer and independence leader, Cuba’s national hero.
Díaz-Canel walked at the head of the march, wearing a sports jacket with the colors of the Cuban flag, and Castro, in his olive green suit as an army general, reports the agency EFE.
Between Cuban flags and slogans in favor of the revolution and its leader, former President Fidel Castro, the delegation toured downtown Havana in an unusually cool and unpleasant environment due to a cold front that extinguished some torches, the Spanish media reported.
Together with Díaz-Canel and Castro, the vice president and commander Ramiro Valdéz led the march; the prime minister Manuel Marrero, the president of the parliament, Esteban Lazo, as well as several ministers and leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
“Cuban and foreign delegates from the Fifth International Conference for the Balance of the World, a forum whose objective is to discuss world problems from an approach closely related to Marti’s ethics,” also participated in the tour. Addfor its part, the official portal cubadebate.
According to him, in the act prior to the march, the thought and work of Martí was remembered, who is considered the most universal of Cubans and the leading figure in the struggles for independence from Spain in the 19th century.
Also to the so-called “Centennial Generation”, led by Fidel Castro, who organized the first march of the torches at midnight on January 27, 1953 in memory of Martí on the occasion of the centenary of his birth.
After the triumph of the revolution, the march has become one of the main mass events called in the year by the island’s official youth organizations. In addition to Havana, it is also usually held in other locations in the country.
