Raúl Castro Absent as Cuba Celebrates Anniversary of Key Attack

CUBA – Cuba held a traditional rally on Sunday to commemorate one of the revolution’s most important anniversaries, but former President Raúl Castro was conspicuously absent.

It was the first time in at least three decades that 95-year-old Castro did not attend the event, and no explanation was given.

President Miguel Díaz-Canel read a congratulatory message from Castro to his compatriots at the rally, held in the eastern city of Pinar del Río.

The annual event commemorates the July 26, 1953 assault led by brothers Fidel and Raúl Castro on barracks in Cuba’s eastern region.

The military action against former dictator Fulgencio Batista failed, but it marked the beginning of the revolutionary struggle that culminated in 1959.