Georgetown, October 28, 2021. Today, all the staff of the Embassy of Cuba to Guyana paid tribute to Camilo Cuenfuegos. The counselor, Ana Violeta Castañeda Marrero in her words expressed:
Camilo, Mr. Avant-Garde
Multiple ways of calling those who won the Cubans of his time and those to come: Camilo, Commander Camilo Cienfuegos, Mr. Avant-Garde, the Man with the brimmed hat, in Cuba we have named him in different ways with respect and admiration.
A young Cuban capable of understanding the urgencies of his people, he left his humble work as an immigrant from the United States to join the revolutionary cause, to a leader to whom he professed loyalty until his last breath. Fidel was his guide; his example to whom not even in the ball game he wanted to be contrary to him, that loyalty is an example of Camilo’s ethical values.
From a humble home that he left early for a living, a tireless worker of good work, he earned respect and admiration, what he did, he did well. The student struggles had kept him in his ranks; against infamy, he faced the hate-laden guards. When he immigrated to the United States, his identity as Cuban, and his sense of homeland were with him, there he met a group of brave men who organized the other necessary war. He was one of the eighty-two chosen to set sail on the Granma yacht.
The young Camilo, a city man, unconnected to mountains and the hard life of a guerrilla, climbed to the Sierra Maestra and also obtained the rank of Commander for his merits, his responsibility and sense of duty, he was accompanied by his eternal smile, his solidarity with his companions and intransigence in the face of any negligence, in the face of anything wrongly done.
Camilo and Che commanded the invasion from East to West, twentieth-century mambises put an end to the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, together with the people, the guerrillas, and Fidel: that dictatorship that murdered young people, tortured and was an ally of the American empire to the one who responded like a faithful henchman.
Camilo turned into light on a day like today, precisely when he was fulfilling the task of the leader of the Revolution: to stop the traitors. Fidel, with the wise knowledge that he always had about the Cuban people, predicted that there would be many Camilos in the town, and that is how it has been. In the long battle to defend sovereignty, the Camilos emerge, those who do not fear the enemy, those who silently defended us and defend us in the entrails of the monster and all the people that deals every day with the consequences of the commercial, economic, and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States, people that reinvent themselves every day, and like Camilo, preserve the smile and loyalty to Fidel.
