THIRD FRONT, Santiago de Cuba.- The martial footsteps tear the silence of the Santiago de Cuba mountain range at dawn on Wednesday. The peak of La Esperanza hill becomes, once again, a space that welcomes and embraces: now 19 combatants whose mortal remains return to these untamed mountains to continue in permanent vigil, together with their eternal chief, the Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, and other 73 comrades.
A little less than one kilometer had been covered by the ossuaries in the rural cars, from the central museum of the Cruces de los Baños village to the base of this emblematic hill, where the Mausoleum of the Third Front Mario Muñoz is built, one of those sacred places of the Homeland.
Thus began the ceremony of transfer and burial of the remains of the combatants of this guerrilla Front, fallen during the War of Liberation or deceased after the triumph of the Revolution. The moment, presided over by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, and by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, was solemn and moving.
The melody of Hasta pronto, a composition composed by the Commander of the Revolution Almeida, accompanies the columns of porters while they place, as a precious treasure, the remains of the combatants on pedestals that have been arranged in the center of the Mausoleum, among the palms. The notes of the National Anthem are heard, and it is impossible not to remember the history of such brave comrades who made of their lives a constant honor to the Homeland.
Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, member of the Central Committee of the Party and first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party in Santiago de Cuba, spoke of their unswerving loyalty, their sacrifice and their defense of what is just, which "turn simple men into heroes and their example into a legend".
They are, she said, "inspiring for current and future generations of Cubans, demonstrated in the extraordinary pattern of firmness, stoicism, courage, sacrifice, resistance and dignity, embodied throughout their revolutionary trajectories.
"We Cubans will have to come back here, again and again, to emulate the example of these troops commanded by Juan Almeida Bosque," she emphasized, to then ratify that "the present and future generations of Cubans, under the guidance of the Communist Party of Cuba and the example of the historic generation, we continue and will continue to consolidate this work, with the principle that only unity gave us victory and will keep the Revolution triumphant."
Again the melody breaks the silence, the porters go to the burial mounds where the remains will be buried, while the names of each one of them are heard. In unison, three floral offerings -on behalf of the General of the Army, the President of the Republic and the relatives of the combatants- are placed on the top of the monument.
In honor and posthumous homage to the combatants, the bugler plays silence and the platoon fires three rifle salutes. Then the chords of the July 26 March are heard, and Raúl, accompanied by Díaz-Canel, by the Commander of the Rebel Army José Ramón Machado Ventura, and other Party and State leaders present at the ceremony, place white roses before the eternal flame that guards the heroes.
And right there, where the remains of the unforgettable leader of the Third Front, Commander of the Revolution Juan Almeida Bosque, rest, the Army General was the first to place a flower. With that gesture, also his silent homage and military salute to the man who was not only a valuable revolutionary, but also a dear brother in the struggle.
