Cuba today remembers the 35th anniversary of that solemn moment for the Homeland in which, under the name of Operation Tribute, the remains of those who fell in the internationalist feat in Africa were moved to the national territory and buried.
They were the funerals of more than 2,000 Cubans who died in the fight to eliminate apartheid on that continent and during Operation Carlota and in the 15 years that followed.
That December 7, the national ceremony took place in El Cacahual, a mausoleum that houses the remains of Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo and his assistant, Captain Francisco Gómez Toro, who died in combat on the same date, but in 1896.
It was no coincidence then that Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, leader of the internationalist epic, chose that sacred altar of the country 93 years later to honor his most daring sons and accompany the pain of the families who lost a relative.
The tribute also extended to all the municipalities of the archipelago, where the people became the protagonists of a farewell to their countrymen at the height of the moment and with the veneration and well-deserved respect for their martyrs.
35 years have passed and in Cuba they still talk about that deed in which each Cuban lost at least one son, a brother or a friend.
The relentless passage of time will not erase one of the greatest feats carried out by this town,
in which two of the greatest values created by man, patriotism and internationalism, were united forever in the history of Cuba.
By choosing this date to bury the remains of our heroic internationalist combatants, December 7 has become a day of remembrance for all Cubans who gave their lives not only in defense of their Homeland, but also of humanity.
