Por Iris Quintero Zulueta 
Tribute and eternal remembrance unite Cubans every December 7 to commemorate this year the 128th anniversary of the death in combat of Major General Antonio Maceo y Grajales, and his assistant, Captain Panchito Gómez Toro.In Colón they also remember the date.
The 35th anniversary of Operation Tribute is joined, a mission where the Homeland received the internationalist combatants who fell in the line of duty on the lands of the African continent.
In Colón, the ceremonial company made up of students from the Pre-University Institute «Leonel Fraguela Castro» guarded the floral offerings in the name of relatives, of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, of the President of the Republic Miguel Díaz -Canel Bermúdez and all the people of Cuba on pilgrimage to the pantheon in the San Rafael cemetery.
At the ceremony, poets and improvisers, along with soloist Maday Carmona, dedicated verses and songs to the martyrs of the Homeland in the presence of the main authorities of the Party and the Government, representatives of the Union of Young Communists, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and mass organizations of the territory.
On the 31st anniversary of the creation of the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, they handed out membership cards to six new members of the organization.
In the central speech, the member of the Municipal Bureau of the Party, Kirenia Garrido Martínez, highlighted the meaning and respect with which the people pay homage to the fallen each year as an eternal remembrance. The date coincides with the 67th anniversary of the assassination of the peasant leader Gabriel Valiente Martín and he was also remembered at his grave.
Translated by Casterman Medina de Leon