Havana, Cuba.- Cuba”s president Miguel Diaz-Canel recalled in Twitter on Tuesday when the Victory Caravan entered Havana led by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in January 1959.

‘The bearded people arrived in the capital, and the population followed the Caravan to Columbia (former main military barracks, nowadays School City). There Fidel and the people talked. A dove alighted on his shoulder and honesty in his word marked January 8 as the happiest day in Havana’s history,’ wrote the Cuban leader in his account @DiazCanelB.

When the Revolution triumphed on January 1, 1959, most of the people was living in absolute misery, thousands of people were dying of preventable diseases, illiteracy rate was astronomical, unemployment was a constant, there was blatant racial and gener discrimination, and against rural inhabitants.

Thanks to the humanist social programs Fidel Castro spearheaded there are currently 1,606,500 students in preschool, primary, special and secondary education. Higher Education guarantees, for free, studies for 155,000 students.

The State supports financially some 5,100 sports facilities and more than 616,000 hours of radio and television broadcasting.

More than 13,000 health institutions currently serve the entire population, with the participation of more than 94,000 doctors, representing 8.2 per 1,000 inhabitants, 19,000 stomatologists and 85,000 nurses.

At the 2018 closing, for the second consecutive year, and with four fewer deaths than 2017, the infant mortality rate was the lowest in its history, at 4.0 per 1,000 live births.