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Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel summoned a group of young people selected by the regime last Friday to "fight" and uphold the Revolution, during an event held in the Protocolo Hall of Laguito in Havana, on the eve of the 64th anniversary of the Young Communist Union (UJC), which is commemorated on April 4.
According to the official newspaper Granma, the meeting brought together students, workers, scientists, doctors, and soldiers, including fighters who participated in the events of January 3 in Caracas, when a U.S. military operation captured Nicolás Maduro and resulted in the death of 32 Cuban soldiers who were protecting him.
Before that carefully selected audience, Díaz-Canel was direct: "We will defend the Homeland together. Here we will fight."
The leader called on the new generations to participate in what he referred to as multiple "battles": the energy battle, the communication battle, the economic production battle, the popular mobilization battle, and the ideological formation battle, with the slogan that "to produce is to resist, and to create is to overcome."
To reinforce the message of continuity in the system, Díaz-Canel appealed to Fidel Castro: "If Fidel and his generation did not let the ideas of the Apostle die in the year of his centenary, we will not let the ideas of the Commander-in-Chief die in his centenary."
Among the young people who spoke, Captain Miguel Alejandro Jurjo Lafargue, one of the fighters present in Caracas on January 3, expressed his gratitude for participating in the discussion and concluded his remarks with the phrase "Revolutionary until death."
The speech contrasts with the reality faced by the very youth that the regime calls upon.
While Díaz-Canel implores the youth to stay and "fight," thousands of Cubans continue to leave the island in search of opportunities that the dictatorship, after 67 years in power, has been unable to provide.
At the end of the event, Díaz-Canel summarized his message with a statement that blends pride and caution: "There are other people in the world who do see and recognize the greatness of the Cuban people; and we continue to be a source of hope, which is why Cuba is not alone and is not isolated."
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