During the last stage of the Cuban people’s struggle for their definitive independence, the revolutionary movement had invaluable support from Venezuela; in that South American nation, the Radio Continental station distributed the voice of Radio Rebelde and the military reports to the Americas, which made it possible to spread the truths of the process that was being lived in this Antillean archipelago.
In January 1958, the March of the Torches was held in Caracas, similar to the one held in Cuba to pay homage to José Martí, and they carried out the One Bolivar for the Sierra Campaign, which allowed them to contribute six tons of weapons for the development of the armed struggle in the mountains of the country.
To settle what was considered a historical debt of Cuba with the sister nation motivated the visit of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz to Caracas, from January 23 to 27, 1959, where he met with representatives of different spheres of society and thanked the people, and the government that assumed power after the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, for the support received.
In this historic trip, the first abroad after the triumph of January 1st, Fidel was invited by the Government Junta to a lunch at the El Pinar restaurant, and in dialogue with his hosts the leader of the Cuban Revolution affirmed “I want the concept of Homeland to have a wider scope, that when we say Homeland we are referring to the great America made up of our small homelands”.
At dusk, in the Plaza Aérea del Silencio in Caracas and before more than one hundred thousand Caracas citizens, the Cuban revolutionary leader explained the reasons why he was visiting Venezuela at that time, made an account of the liberation struggle in Cuba, defended the right to apply revolutionary justice, and thanked the Venezuelan people for their support.
In this speech he also referred to the unitary thought of Simón Bolívar and José Martí, and highlighted the importance of Latin American unity and assured: “Venezuela is the homeland of the Liberator, where the idea of the union of the peoples of America was conceived. Therefore, Venezuela must be the leading country of the union of the peoples of America”.
Fidel’s visit to Venezuela in January 1959 lasted until the 27th, on the 24th he was invited to the Central University of Caracas, where he expressed in a speech what it means to be a revolutionary and affirmed: “… to dedicate one’s life to the cause of the revolution of the peoples, to the full redemption of the oppressed and exploited peoples”.