HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 28.Thousands of Cuban youths marched on Friday night from the stairs of the University of Havana to the nearby Fragua Martiana monument in honor of National Hero Jose Marti on the occasion of his 159th birthday anniversary.

The traditional Torch March was headed by   Lazara Mercedes Lopez Acea and  Miguel Díaz-Canel, members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (CC-PCC), as well as by Jose Ramon Balaguer and Olga Lidia Tapia, members of the Secretariat of the CC-PCC, along with leaders of the main national student and youth organizations.

In a short speech before the march, the president of the Federation of University Students (FEU), Carlos Rangel, referred to the first Torch March, carried out in 1953 by university students to mark the centenary of Marti’s birth.

He added that January 28 is a glorious day for Cuba because it marks the birthday anniversary of the most universal of all Cubans and also because this year it coincides with the beginning of the First National Conference of the Cuban Communist Party.

“The Cuban youths will never let Fidel (Castro) down, nor will we ever betray this Revolution or give up our homeland, this free Cuba, that of Jose Marti, Julio Antonio Mella, Ruben Martinez Villena, Antonio Guiteras, Jose Antonio Echevarria, Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto Che Guevara, that of the five Cuban heroes who remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States,” Rangel said.

At the Fragua Martiana monument, floral wreaths on behalf of the Cuban people were placed in front of the monument dedicated to the Cuban National Hero by Balaguer and Liudmila Alamo, First Secretary of the Young Communist League (UJC).