Cuba today honours more than 20,000 martyrs who fell fighting against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1958), in the last stage of its liberation struggle, victorious on 1 January 1959.

The anniversary commemorates the assassinations, on a similar day in 1957, of Frank Paìs, leader of the 26th of July Movement, and his comrade-in-arms, Raúl Pujols, in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

The death of both young men transcends national history as an abominable crime that inflamed the patriotic sentiment of the nation, and calls, every year, for the remembrance of more than 20,000 fallen to free Cuba from the excesses of the Batista regime.

Known by the pseudonym of David, among the clandestine troops, Frank País directed the sabotage actions of the insurgent movement in the streets of Santiago and responded to the leadership of Fidel Castro, from the eastern mountains.

On 30 November 1956, the young revolutionary leader led a popular uprising to support the arrival on Cuban shores of 82 expeditionary members of the Granma yacht from Mexico, led by Fidel Castro.

The insurrection of the people of Santiago contributed to the survival in the Sierra Maestra of the guerrilla nucleus, which in barely two years dealt a crushing defeat to a large and better-equipped professional army.

On this anniversary, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, said that remembering the martyrs «has to be like an examination of conscience and of the conduct of each one of us, it has to be like a recounting of what has been done…».

«Because the moral torch,» continued the commander-in-chief, «the flame of purity that lit our Revolution, we have to keep it alive, we have to keep it clean, we have to keep it burning.