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Chile Commemorates Fidel Castro’s Historic Visit

Santiago, Chile, Nov 18. -The Chilean Movement of Solidarity with Cuba will dedicate its 19th National Meeting on Friday and Saturday to the 40th anniversary of the visit of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, to Chile.The solidarity event will open on Friday in the mining city of Lota, in the region of Bio Bio, some 500 kilometers (311 miles) south of Santiago.

Just four decades ago, on November 18, 1971, Fidel Castro arrived in Lota, the birthplace of combative and solidarity traditions of the Chilean worker's movement.

In 1961, right after the U.S. military invasion of Cuba in Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs), Lota miners staged a 48-hour strike in support of the new revolutionary process and more than 500 of them signed up as volunteers to fight in defense of Cuba.

The fact is highlighted during the call to forum, from which new solidarity initiatives will result in favor of Cuba and the struggle for the immediate release of five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in U.S. prisons since 1998.

In addition to demanding the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero, the Chilean Movement's note alluded the cruel decision to force Rene Gonzalez to stay three years of "supervised release" on U.S. territory, after having served his illegal sentence.

The meeting's agenda also includes a working commission to denounce the long U.S. blockade of the Cuban government and people, termed here as "the longest and most immoral blockade in history."

The leader of the Cuban Revolution visited Chile between November 10 and December 4, 1971, invited by then President and leader of the Popular Unity Salvador Allende. (Prensa Latina)