Cuban leaders: Castro's ideals live on
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA --
Communist leaders called Tuesday for the revolutionary ideals of ailing
leader Fidel Castro to live on as they marked the 50th anniversary of a
failed attempt to assassinate dictator Fulgencio Batista.
"This revolution will continue for all time," parliament speaker Ricardo
Alarcon told hundreds of students and top government leaders, including
acting president Raul Castro, who watched the event from a front row
seat but did not address the crowd.
Alarcon praised the courage of Jose Antonio Echeverria, the University
Student Federation president who was killed by police after the attack a
half-century ago, and said that Cubans like him would ensure the
socialist revolution would endure.
On Jan. 1, 1959 - barely 18 months after Echeverria's failed
assassination attempt at the presidential palace - Fidel Castro led an
army of revolutionaries who toppled Batista's government.
The 80-year-old Castro announced on July 31 he had undergone intestinal
surgery and was temporarily ceding power to his brother Raul, the
defense minister.
Raul Castro, 75, appeared less reserved than at many of his recent
public events, smiling broadly and waving to the crowd before and after
the hour-long event.
Staged outside the towering columns of the palace - since converted to
the Museum of the Revolution - the celebration featured a skit where
dancers slain during a mock struggle leaped to their feet anew and
joined hands in a circle.
Echeverria was 19 on March 13, 1957, when he led a group of college
students in the attack. A three-story, black-and-white photo of a
beaming and pudgy Echeverria smiled down on those assembled.
The students seized the local Radio Reloj station and announced
Batista's death, unaware that he had survived. Echeverria was shot and
killed by police minutes later.
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