Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel paid tribute here on Saturday to the heroes of the fight for Namibia's liberation.

Windhoek.- Speaking as a guest of honor at the ceremony on Namibian Heroes’ Day, Díaz-Canel paid an excited and well-deserved tribute to the Namibian heroes and heroines, who sacrificed their lives and paved the way to the final independence of their homeland.

A special acknowledgment of the founding father of Namibia, Sam Nujoma, who was a dear friend of Fidel Castro and the entire Cuban people, Díaz-Canel said before those gathered in the capital’s Independence Stadium.

You fought against injustice on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, and Cuba is honored for having supported you, the Cuban President added.

This way, after March 21, 1990, Namibia became a symbol of resistance in South West Africa and with its victory, it definitively dug the grave of the disgraceful apartheid regime, he went on.

The suffering of the Namibian people, in whose memory the traces of gruesome episodes such as the Cassinga massacre remain, ended that day.

Díaz-Canel recalled how the children who survived that massacre, who were rescued by Cuban internationalist fighters, found family, home, and school in Cuba, where Fidel Castro welcomed them as sons and daughters, not only for them to study, but to cure themselves from fright they lived.

To the memory of their fallen relatives, he said in the presence of some of those victims at today’s event, and to the dignified resistance that allowed them to survive the horror, we pay heartfelt tribute.

Currently, our nations march together on the arduous road to development, the President added.

To that end, thousands of our compatriots have worked in Namibia, and continue to do so, in the fields of health care, education, fishing, transport, and construction, the President added.

The Cubans who fought in Angola for Namibia in compliance with their sacred internationalist duty can feel satisfied, because their sacrifice contributed decisively to the independence of a nation that makes its children proud, and Cuba forever won the respect and affection of a firm, courageous, and honest ally, he emphasized.

In his speech, Díaz-Canel explained to those present how Cuba is currently suffering from a difficult socioeconomic situation, whose main cause is the persistence, for more than sixty years, of the economic, commercial, and financial blockade by the United States.

For this reason, Cuba thanks the Government of Namibia for promoting every year, in the African Union, the adoption of Resolutions against the blockade, for making its voice heard from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, and for maintaining consistent support in favor of resolutions on the subject, in that international body, he emphasized.

The Cuban combatants who fought alongside the Namibians to defeat the apartheid regime did not come to these lands to seize our wealth, he recalled.

They left Africa with only their dead from the fighting, he stressed.

The Cuban President will end his African tour in Namibia. Previously he visited Angola and Mozambique in that capacity, as well as South Africa to participate in the 15th BRICS Summit, as president of the G77 and China.

NAMIBIAN PRESIDENT IS PLEASED TO WELCOME HIS CUBAN COUNTERPART

Namibian President Hage Geingob on Saturday expressed satisfaction with welcoming his Cuban counterpart, Miguel Díaz-Canel, as a guest of honor at this year's commemoration of Heroes' Day.

We honor our brothers and sisters in Cuba for their heroic sacrifices that led to our freedom, the Namibian President wrote on social media X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Cuban head of State is on an official visit to the Republic of Namibia as part of a tour that previously took him in that capacity to Angola and Mozambique, as well as to South Africa as president of the G77 and China to participate in the 15th Brics Summit.

Heroes' Day in Namibia is recognized by the United Nations as Namibia Day. It honors those who lost their lives during the War of National Independence, which began on August 26, 1966. (PL)