From Punta del Este to Port of Spain progreso-weekly.com

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From Punta del Este to Port of Spain

By Manuel E. Yepe

Read Spanish Version

A CubaNews translation by Will Reissner.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.

Some days ago Carlos Lechuga, one of the shining lights of Cuban journalism and diplomacy, died in Havana at the age of 91. He was already an acclaimed journalist when he joined the clandestine ranks of the July 26th Revolutionary Movement led by Fidel Castro and he remained very active in his country’s international relations until his final breath.

Among the highpoints of his popularity and well-earned prestige were his having been the journalist who announced, in front of the television cameras, that the tyrant Fulgencio Batista had fled and that the people’s uprising had triumphed, as well as his having been the Cuban ambassador to the Organization of American States when the island was expelled from that forum in 1962 at Washington’s demand.
That U.S. action, which was the culmination of a long period of maneuvers aimed at isolating Cuba in the international arena, is considered, paradoxically, a triumph for Cuban diplomacy which, after that, was able to spread its wings with greater freedom and brilliance.

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