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Delegates visit Moncada Village’s memorial house. (Photo: SGGP) |
The event organized by the provincial People’s Committee also aimed to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the attack on Moncada Barracks of Cuba and 40 years since the establishment of Moncada Village in Giong Trom District’s Luong Hoa Commune in the southern province.
Attending the event were former Chairwoman of the National Assembly cum former President of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association (VCFA) Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Cuban Deputy Ambassador to Vietnam Joy Puentes Saldise, Consul General of Cuba in HCMC Ariadne Feo Labrada, leaders of Ben Tre Province.
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Chairman of the People's Committee of Ben Tre Province Tran Ngoc Tam speaks at the event. (Photo: SGGP) |
On July 26, 1953, Cuba's revolutionary legend Fidel Castro led a group of 130 young rebels on the Moncada military barracks in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. The attack failed but it marked the beginning of the struggles against the Batista dictatorship.
On December 2, 1960, the Republic of Cuba became the first country in Latin America to establish full diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
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Former Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Chairman of the People's Committee of Ben Tre Province Tran Ngoc Tam plant trees at Moncada Village’s memorial house. (Photo: SGGP) |
Based on the documents, a group of Vietnamese students studying in Cuba spent a summer labor trip at a village of Hinba Bonita cow farm in 1969. Cuba's revolutionary legend Fidel Castrol had established the communities on the farm and named it “Ben Tre village” to honor the first province in the Southern region of Vietnam to be liberated. The village currently gathers around 273 households.
Additionally, a village called Moncada Village was established on January 9, 1984, in Giong Trom District’s Luong Hoa Commune, the hometown of female general Nguyen Thi Dinh, on the occasion of the 24 years of the Dong Khoi (General Uprising) Movement.
Moncada Village’s memorial house covering an area of 290 square meters was built at a total cost of VND4.5 billion (US$187,597) with the goal of displaying documents and images of the special traditional friendship between Vietnam and Cuba in general, Moncada Village and Ben Tre particularly.
