A new day of solidarity with Puerto Rico’s independence cause will begin here next Monday, September 15th, and will last for one week. For this event, a delegation from the Hostosiano National Independence Movement will travel to Havana, according to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
An exhibition will open at ICAP headquarters on the activist Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, murdered 20 years ago by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the municipality of Hormigueros, after being surrounded by more than 300 agents, including snipers from the United States.
The 50th anniversary of the First International Conference for the Independence of Puerto Rico, held in Cuba at the initiative of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro, will be commemorated, as well as the 157th anniversary of the Grito de Lares (September 23, 1868), the date of Puerto Rican independence from Spain. In 1898, the United States invaded Puerto Rican territory, establishing a repudiated colonial regime there.
The event is also dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the death of Puerto Rican leader Juan Mari Bras, founder, along with Fidel Castro, of the Puerto Rican Mission in Cuba, the first and only Puerto Rican embassy, established in 1966.
Mari Bras was one of the founders of the Puerto Rican Pro-Independence Movement (MPI) in 1959, the Puerto Rican Socialist Party (PSP), and the anti-colonial and pro-independence newspaper “Claridad.”
The program includes floral tributes to Cuban National Hero José Martí and Father of the Puerto Rican Nation Ramón Emeterio Betances, in Central and Fraternidad Parks, respectively, and to Filiberto Ojeda Ríos at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune.
In addition, visits are planned to the Fidel Castro Center in Havana and the Pedro Albizu Campo School in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas. A conference on current events in Puerto Rico will be offered at the Cuban Association of the United Nations (ACNU).
[ SOURCE: AGENCIA CUBANA DE NOTICIAS (ACN) ]
