Cuba celebrated its National Day on 26th July by holding massive rallies and meetings in many centres. The meeting in Santiago was addressed by the President Raul Castro and many world leaders who have come to attend the celebrations. A report on the rally is given below:
HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuban President Raul Castro assured his people on Friday that a transfer of power to younger generations had begun, in a televised address marking the 60th anniversary of the start of the Cuban revolution.
Castro spoke in the city of Santiago in eastern Cuba, where on July 26, 1953, the young Castro and a group of rebels, led by his brother Fidel, attacked the Moncada military barracks in a failed assault that sparked the movement that eventually toppled the U.S.-backed government of dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959.
At the time of the attack, Raul Castro was 22 and Fidel Castro 27.
Raul, now 82, who took over as president from his brother in 2008, spoke in front of the Moncada to 11,000 spectators, while a frail Fidel, who turns 87 next month, remained out of sight in Havana.