Cuba marks Revolution Day with call for unity

Cuba marks Revolution Day with call for unity
By ANNE-MARIE GARCIA

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba marked the 61st anniversary of the beginning of Fidel
and Raul Castro's revolution on Saturday with a leading official calling
on islanders to be united and to defend the nation's communist system.

President Raul Castro, wearing an olive-green military uniform as he sat
in the front row with other top leaders, ceded speechmaking duties to
Vice President Ramiro Valdes, a former commander in the rebellion.

"We must preserve this unity above all things," Valdes said. "We have no
alternative but to keep fighting every day, until the last breath, for
the country, with the revolution and with socialism."

The Castro brothers' failed attack on a military barracks in the eastern
city of Santiago on July 26, 1953, is considered the onset of the
revolution, which culminated in 1959 when strongman Fulgencio Batista
fled the island.

The date is a national holiday celebrated each year with musical
performances and patriotic speeches. On Saturday, the main ceremony took
place in the provincial capital of Artemisa, west of Havana.

"There is no place in our hearts for discouragement, and the word defeat
has been erased from our vocabulary," Valdes said.

Source: Cuba marks Revolution Day with call for unity - Yahoo News -
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