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Cuba Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Castro Led Revolution

by Tina Kells | January 1, 2009 at 10:21 pm

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Raul Castro, who replaced older brother and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, as president in February last year, spoke at a 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution event on New Year's Day in the city of Santiago de Cuba.

The 50th anniversary of the Castro led revolution lacked in pomp and circumstance but was full of the national pride for which the Castro family has become famous.

In his remarks Raul Castro shrugged off suggestions that the revolutionary spirit in Cuba is dying with his ailing brother.

"Today the revolution is stronger than ever," Raul Castro said.

"It has never yielded a single millimetre in its principles and at the most difficult moments. That truth doesn't change at all."

The speech took place on the same balcony from which Fidel Castro proclaimed victory after Fulgencio Batista, the nation's corrupt former leader, fled the nation on January 1, 1959.