Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday 25 July 2023: - Solly Mapaila, the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys a message of heartfelt condolences to the family of Cuban revolutionary Dr Rodolfo Puente Ferro, and the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban government, and the Cuban people at large. A medical doctor by profession, member of Ernesto Che Guevara’s detachment in the Congo, ambassador to Angola, and leader of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Comrade Rodolfo Puente Ferro passed away at 98 on Sunday morning, 23 July.
At a young age, Puente Ferro joined the Cuban revolutionary organisation the July 26th Movement led by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro. In the annals of social history, Wednesday marks the 70th anniversary of the movement, which ignited the Cuban Revolution on 26 July 1953 towards its triumph on 1 January 1959, ending United States-backed dictatorship and oppression of the Cuban people.
Until now, the imperialist regime of the United States has not forgiven the Cuban people for their self-liberation and for their exercise of their fundamental right to national self-determination, including choosing their own path of transformation and development, socialism. The United States imposed and intensified its illegal economic, financial, investment, trade and wider blockade on Cuba. Joe Biden proved to be a pathological liar promising to relax the inhumane blockade when he campaigned to be the United States president, only to intensify it after his election.
Mapaila reiterated the SACP’s unwavering solidarity with the government, the Communist Party and people of Cuba against the criminal blockade. He further reiterated the SACP’s support for the just struggle by the Cuban people to end the United States occupation of the Cuban territory of Guantanamo Bay. While pretending to be against the occupation of one country’s territory by another in Lithuania at the imperialist war alliance, NATO’s heads of state summit earlier this month, Joe Biden the pathological liar is intransigently presiding over his imperialist regime’s occupation of Cuba’s territory.
The SACP will strengthen its international solidarity with the people of Cuba and oppressed people of the world against imperialism, in memory of the internationalist revolutionary, Dr Rodolfo Puente Ferro. Mapaila led bilateral engagements with various political parties, covering Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, at the BRICS Political Parties Plus Dialogue held in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng Province, South Africa last week. Consistent with the values Puente Ferro stood for, the bilateral engagements were crucial for strengthening international solidarity, forging a world peace movement against imperialism, neo-colonialism and related forms of oppression and exploitation.
Puente Ferro served in different roles in the Cuban Revolution, government and Communist Party. He served as the Director of the Institute of Haematology and of the Finley Hospital, after which he was assigned other responsibilities, which he performed with the highest sense of revolutionary morality, ethics, commitment, professionalism and loyalty to Cuba and the world working-class and peasants.
As a member of the Che Guevara contingent in Congo, Dr Puente Ferro was with his late friend and comrade, Jorge Risquet Valdés-Saldaña in the Congo Brazzaville whilst his comrades of the same detachment were with Che in the Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a mission to contribute to revolutionary warfare after the tragic assassination of Patrice Lumumba by the imperialist US through its CIA in collaboration with the imperialist Belgian government.
For over 30 years, Puente Ferro served in the International Relations Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and served us especially well in Africa and the Middle East division of the Department.
Mapaila recalled fondly the moments he spent with Dr Puente Ferro. “We had a long working day of nineteen hours, breaking a working day record of visiting delegations, but we ran short of breaking Fidel’s twenty-two-hour working day during Operation Carlota—that historic defeat against apartheid South Africa in Angola by the heroic Cuban forces.
“In my recent visit to Cuba”, said Mapaila, I went to see comrade Puente Ferro recuperating at home. He was watching Brazil’s election results, excited that President Lula was making a headway to victory. I have never been to Cuba recently without spending some quality time with my adopted Cuban father, Puente Ferro”.
“May his lasting legacy of struggle live long to inspire a new generation of revolutionaries to change the world for the better”, Mapaila concluded.
Comrade Rodolfo Puente Ferro was not only a recognisable voice and face in the pursuit of Cuban Revolution and its defence, but he was also an internationalist who played a prominent role in the peace negotiations in Angola, which led to the negotiated settlement to end Apartheid in South Africa.
Dr Rodolfo Puente Ferro leaves behind a rich legacy of struggle and dedication. He was an exemplar par excellence. We hope that the severe wound inflicted on the family of Puente Ferro and all who knew and loved him will be soon healed. We bow our heads in honour of this gallant Cuban medico-revolutionary stalwart and bid him farewell.
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!
Patria o Muerte! Venceremos!
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