Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Hanoi, Oct 4.- The total support for Cuba's fight against the now intensified economic, financial and commercial blockade of the United States was ratified by forces of solidarity and friendship associations with the southern island of Vietnam.
The denunciation against the hostile US policy, applied for more than six decades and whose accumulated damages are estimated at more than 164.14 billion dollars (at current prices), resonated in an emotional event held at the Public Security University of the southern metropolis.
The Union of Friendship Organizations (HUFO) and the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association of Ho Chi Minh City were the organizers of the meeting, held the day before and in which the 71st anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks on July 26, 1953.
The president of the aforementioned Association, Truong Thi Hien, alluded to the importance of these events and also of the relations between both nations, founded and cultivated by President Ho Chi Minh and the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.
Likewise, the relevance of the recent state visit to Cuba of the general secretary of the Communist Party and president of Vietnam, was highlighted by To Lam, which - it was said - will allow for strengthening the traditional solidarity and special friendship between the two countries, the trade, investment, and links in other spheres.
When the Consul General of Cuba in the southern city, Ariadne Feo Labrada, intervened at the event, she said that the special and unique friendship that exists between her country and Vietnam constitutes a model of international relations, and emphasized the importance of developing town to town Cuban diplomacy.
The diplomat denounced the incessant application of the strict blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, causing considerable damage to the economy and the main obstacle to its economic and social development, to which is added the irrational and unfair inclusion of the island in the so-called “list of countries that sponsor terrorism.”
This struggle sustained for more than 65 years against what constitutes an act of war in times of peace "has left us with the only alternative to fight and resist despite the difficulties," emphasized the consul, who thanked the Communist Party, the State and the Vietnamese people for the solidarity and support provided to Cuba at all times.
At the event, the 60th Anniversary order of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) was awarded to the Liaison Committee of Battalion 261 in Ho Chi Minh City, to which Commander in Chief Fidel Castro delivered the flag of Girón's victory in 1964, after his victory in the battle of Ap Bac in early 1963.
Since then, this unit also adopted the name Battalion 261 – Girón, becoming a symbol of the special and enduring friendship between Vietnam and Cuba. (Text and photos: PL)
