Cuba commemorates this Saturday, the Day of the Martyrs of the Revolution, in remembrance of Frank País and Raúl Pujol, two young men assassinated by henchmen of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship on July 30, 1957.

Havana, Cuba.- Throughout the country, there will be ceremonies, tributes, and shows of respect to those who offered their lives so that the homeland could conquer its true independence.

The date was instituted with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution to pay tribute to Raúl Pujol and Frank País, the latter being the chief of action and sabotage of the July 26 Movement, whose burial became a popular demonstration of protest against the excesses of the military dictatorship.

The young men were captured due to a denunciation and brutally riddled with bullets by Batista's repressive corps in Santiago de Cuba, where citizen resistance was gaining more and more strength.

Frank País, whose nom de guerre was David, had played a leading role on November 30, 1956, when there was an uprising in the city in support of the landing of the expeditionary force led by Fidel Castro coming from Mexico on the Granma yacht.

The young man went underground, constantly changing his hiding place and organizing support for the nascent Rebel Army, and sabotaging actions in the cities. It was in this struggle that his assassination took place.

On July 31, 1957, Frank País' funeral procession became a popular demonstration in Santiago de Cuba, his hometown, which gave momentum to the insurrectional movement throughout Cuba.

The Council of Ministers institutionalized the date on July 26, 1959, to summarize the perennial tribute of remembrance and respect to the more than 20 thousand Cubans who lost their lives in the effort to overthrow the tyrant Fulgencio Batista. (RHC)