"This year our pilgrimage to Cacahual, representing the Cuban people, has a special significance since, bearing a deep sadness, we have come to the site where the remains of Antonio Maceo rest, to say that his most avid student, Fidel Castro, is no longer among us physically," said Jorge Cuevas Ramos, member of the Party Central Committee Secretariat, during the military ceremony commemorating the 120th anniversary of the death in battle of Lieutenant General of the Liberation Army Antonio Maceo, and his assistant Captain Panchito Gómez Toro.
 
Also observed at the Cacahual mausoleum was the 27th anniversary of Operation Tribute, initiated to honor internationalist combatants who perished in battle defending sister peoples.
 
In his remarks, Cuevas Ramos recalled that in many difficult moments, Fidel referred to the ideas of Maceo, and that the Baraguá protest against the Pact of Zanjón has become a symbol of the Cuban people's determination to continue the struggle for true justice and liberty.
 
Attending the event were Party Political Bureau members Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers; Army Corps General Álvaro López Miera, first vice president of the Revolutionary Armed Forces; and Mercedes López Acea, a Council of State vice president.