More than nine thousand third grade students in Granma province changed their blue scarves for red ones and from Moncadista pioneers they become members of a unique organization in the world: the José Martí Pioneers Organization (OPJM).

(By: Yanelkys Llera Céspedes)

“What you are doing is Fidel Castro’s dream. Without his idea it would not have been possible to have a school that has trained students from Third World countries, who would not have had the possibility of studying medicine had they not been given an opportunity at this school, of a scholarship that provides everything free of charge,” stated the Cuban ambassador to Colombia, José Luis Ponce, speaking with the young people and their families at El Dorado International Airport.

“We are sure that you appreciate the love with which we give you this and how we share what we have, not what we have left over,” said Ponce on a day when Cubans commemorate the 93rd anniversary of Fidel’s birth.

The diplomat said that over the next two years, 1,000 students on scholarships, donated by the Cuban government to the Colombian people, will begin their studies in Cuba to support their re-integration into society with the signing in 2016 of the Peace Agreement between the Colombian state and FARC-EP guerrillas.

(Granma)

Victims of the conflict, former guerrillas, relatives of troops, and the population in rural regions of the country, according to Prensa Latina, are included in the group of approximately 200 young people who will begin their studies at ELAM this year.

(Granma)

Many labels are used for the same phenomenon – well-funded, desperate attempts to incite youth to forget their history, to supplant their culture.

One such subversion effort directed toward youth in Cuba was revealed in 2015, when the World Learning summer program in the U.S. was offered with the objective of training “leaders” for political change on the island.

Alejandro Sánchez, who attended the World Learning program and is now a student at the University of Havana, explained during the FEU Congress that, once the group of Cuban youth had arrived in the United States, the program’s coordinators made clear that they were considered an investment and insisted that they implement the projects presented in Cuba.

May these tricks not blind us, Sánchez said, recalling the experience, strengthening our preparation, maintaining and defending our values and national identity must be a priority for all. Let us hold fast to our principles.

(Granma)

In addition to the official opening of the Congress at Havana’s Convention Center, the structure of the National Council and the candidacy for the national secretariat of FEU will be presented and approved today.

Later, the delegates will work in five commissions: Organic functioning, Political-ideological work, Teaching and research, University extension and Communications.

The congress will conclude on Sunday with the presentation of the elected national secretariat, a tribute to the historic leaders of the FEU and the Cuban Revolution, and the final declaration of the event.

University students participated yesterday in pre-congress meetings with representatives of several government institutions.

A student march to the University of Havana was also held on Friday night, to pay tribute to the FEU’s martyrs.

The delegates ratified their support for the Revolution and its historic leader, Fidel Castro, and the organization’s commitment to the ideals of independence.

(Prensa Latina)

FEU President Raúl Alejandro Palmero Fernández announced that among honorary delegates to the event, scheduled in July, are José Ramón Machado Ventura, second Party secretary and a vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers, and Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Political Bureau member and first vice president of the Councils of State and Ministers.

Other honorees are Comandante de la Revolución Ramiro Valdés Menéndez, Political Bureau member and a vice president of Councils of State and Ministers; Comandante de la Revolución Guillermo García Frías; Comandante Faure Chomón Mediavilla; José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, member of the Party Central Committee secretariat; and José Ramón Fernández Álvarez, Presidential advisor.

The distinctions were announced during a commemoration of the 115th anniversary of the birth of student leader Julio Antonio Mella, held in the University of Havana’s Aula Magna, with Palmero Fernández noting that these individuals are recognized as eternal university youth.

The commemoration also included the placement of a floral wreath at the monument where Mella’s ashes rest, at the foot of University Hill.

The central remarks were presented by Palmero who recalled that Mella was an audacious, natural leader, who united students in the struggle of his era, founding the Federation, the magazine Alma Máter, and the José Martí People’s University.

He emphasized that no one can talk about Mella without emphasizing his Latin Americanist and anti-imperialist ideas, or his revolutionary vision, evident in his work with Carlos Baliño, to found the Communist Party of Cuba.

Also attending the event were José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera; Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, member of the Party Central Committee secretariat; Ronald Hidalgo Rivera, second secretary of the Young Communists League (UJC); and University of Havana dean Gustavo Cobreiro Suárez.

(ACN)

For decades, the presencer of children and teenagers with their uniforms and school attributes, has given a distinctive touch to elections in the island, where there are no police and military forces to guarantee the tranquility and normal evolution of voting.

‘For me it is a matter of pride to guard elections of the people, I have done this many times and always with great happiness’, commented to Prensa Latina Thalia, pupil of sixth grade of the capital’s municipality of Boyeros.

Likewise Reynaldo, who for the first time does this with great enthusiasm.

I had to get up very early and now, every time someone deposits their ballot I have to salute and say ‘voted’, said the seven-year old resident in the Havana municipality of Playa.

Also Cuban adolescents and youths carry out a leading role in election day, when over eight million citizens over 16 years of age will elect the members of Parliament and the delegates to the Provincial Assemblies of the People’s Power.

In declarations to Prensa Latina, the member of the National Electoral Commission Gil Ramon Gonzalez, stressed the participation of over 17 thousand university and mid-level schools as collaborators at the polling stations, a figure that was first established in the partial elections of 2015 and has the mission of protecting the process’ legality.

‘Their presence allows to have a different appreciation of the process, different from that of an electoral authority. The youths are immerse in some of the most significant moments of the day, as the opening of the polling stations, the emission of reports and the compliance with the law, that is very important’, explained the also Vice Minister of High Education.

(Prensa Latina)

The firm decision of students in attendance to uphold the banner of socialism and the ideas of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution was reiterated in speeches, chants, and signs.

FEU President and member of the Council of State, Jennifer Bello Martínez, commented, “This 94th anniversary has a special connotation as the first without the presence of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, and we decided to dedicate it to this eternal youth, of whose legacy we will be continuators. He always placed his confidence in university students, always debated any idea he had with university students, because he knew that this is where the reliable rearguard was, in revolutionary processes.”

She noted that Cienfuegos had earned the honor of being the site of the celebration with the pace of its efforts to implement plans made during the organization’s 8th Congress. The student leader concluded saying that 2017 would be a busy year for the FEU, as chapters mobilize members to contribute to all the tasks the country is undertaking.

(Granma)

“I will be returning to my city of Las Tunas in a few months as a civil engineering graduate and in these five years our Revolution has guaranteed all my studies, free of charge, which is why we don’t need any scholarships from the U.S.,” stated Orestes Martínez Guerra, speaking to Granma at the demonstration.

In addition to Martínez Guerra, the over 14,000 students enrolled in the 55 degree courses offered by the University across its 13 faculties, outlined the true intentions of the supposed scholarship programs launched by the “non-governmental” organization World Learning, at a country with one of the best education systems on the planet.

Young people from various educational institutions in Ciego de Ávila joined in protests against new schemes by the U.S. government. Students from the José Assef Yara Faculty of Medical Sciences gathered in the university’s Ernesto Che Guevara Park to denounce the project.

Second year Dentistry student and a member of the faculty’s Federation of University Students (FEU) secretariat, Pedro Miranda Hernández condemned the subversive and manipulative nature of U.S. scholarship programs aimed at creating supposed opinion leaders and agents of change which have nothing in common with the Cuban Revolution’s social project.

Meanwhile, FEU President Abel Mayea categorically stated: “There are no ulterior motives in the scholarships awarded. It’s clear that they want to subdue us.

“Cuba is not opposed to exchanges, but these must be undertaken with respect and with complete adherence to institutionality. They won’t be able to offer us more than what the Revolution has given us in 58 years,” he stated.

(Granma)

The objective of the protest action was to denounce the government´s intransigence towards the reiterated demands by students and the people in favor of free, public education, said Cesar Urbina, vice president of the Metropolitan University of Technology.

“The government is dishonest. They are rating us as intransigent, and they are the ones who are turning a deaf ear,” the student leader said.

The students’ arrest takes place amid the government’s toughening stance towards the Social Movement for Education, which it holds responsible for triggering violent acts, damage, and plundering in the country.

(Prensa Latina)