The member of the Party Politburo, Army Corps General Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, First Deputy Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and Chief of the General Staff, and the member of the Central Committee Secretariat and head of its Agri-Food Department, José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz, presided over the political ceremony and military honours with which the people of Cuba paid tribute to Máximo Gómez Báez on the 121st anniversary of his death.

At the ceremony, the figure of the General-in-Chief of the Liberation Army was highlighted as a reference point in the defence of the independence won when imperialism intensifies its hostile policy against our Homeland.

«Without Máximo Gómez Báez, it is not possible to speak or write about the history of Cuba and its struggle for independence from Spanish colonialism,» stated in his speech Brigadier General José Guanche Aguado, head of a Directorate at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

He noted that he was «the highest expression of internationalism in the 19th century, a paradigm in the service of the nation and the people; fearless in the face of danger, valiant in combat, upright in his decisions, rough and harsh in character; sparing in his testimony and austere in his personal needs.»

«He was, is and will be the Generalissimo,» he stressed.

Brigadier General Guanche Aguado also pointed out that Gómez is the most representative example of the evolution of Cuban military art, manifested in the invasion from East to West; the Circular and Reform campaigns; and the battles of Iguará, Mal Tiempo, Coliseo and Calimete, among other actions.

«Here we Cubans stand, ready to follow his example, to defend the Homeland as he taught us; to keep alive the legacy of the historic leader of the Revolution, Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz,» he asserted.

The political ceremony and military honours were also attended by leaders of the Party, the Government and the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution (ACRC); chiefs of the FAR and the Ministry of the Interior, as well as officers and cadets from the university educational institutions attached to the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Máximo Gómez Báez, the man who had defied death in some 235 combats without suffering more than two wounds, died in his bed in Havana on 17 June 1905, from septicaemia.

He was 68 years old and had a vast record of service to the Homeland.