Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.- Residents in Santiago de Cuba gathered on Tuesday at the former civil hospital, currently the Abel Santamaria Museum of History, to remember the self-defense plea made there by Fidel Castro 65 years ago, after the attack on the Moncada Garrison.

Historians, children who study in the nearby school city, formerly the Moncada Garrison, and authorities and local residents met there, very close to the nurses’ ward, where the hearing took place and the young lawyer responded to accusations for that insurrectional action.

Dr. Eugenio Suarez, the director of the Office for Historic Affairs, attached to the Council of State, noted the importance of that document, which has been known as ‘History will Absolve Me’, which is the last phrase stated by the leader of the young revolutionaries who attacked the Moncada Garrison on July 16, 1953.

Suarez referred to the implicit continuity between those statements and the contents of the Montecristi Manifesto, issue during the organization of the wars for independence in the late 19th century under the leadership of Jose Marti and Maximo Gomez.

He added that the tactic failure of the military attack became the beginning of a new era in Cuba’s liberation struggles and Fidel’s merit was to pave the way and design the strategy that resulted in the triumph of the Revolution nearly six years later, on January 1, 1959.