Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Cuban President Raul Castro Presides Over Pioneer Congress

5th Cuban Pioneers Congress

President Raúl Castro presides over closing session

Olga Díaz Ruiz

PRESIDENT Raúl Castro Ruz presided over the final session of the 5th Congress of the José Martí Pioneers Organization (OPJM), which ended with the commitment of Cuban youth to strengthen the organization, learn more about the history of the homeland and their local areas, meet education expectations and prepare themselves as the future professionals needed by the country.

In the Karl Marx Theater, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, OPJM president, confirmed on behalf of the young pioneers their responsibility to the present and future of the Revolution and called for all of the subjects discussed at the Congress to be made concrete in the country’s classrooms.

Olga Lidia Tapia, member of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, noted that the Congress demonstrated that the future has to be the work of children and young people capable of creating riches through their work, prepared with a profound sense of revolutionary vocation, respectful, modest and educated, because "the Revolution is nourished by the inspiration of new generations."

During the cultural gala headed by La Colmenita children’s theater group, First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura presented the Zapaticos de Rosa prizes, the maximum distinction given by the OPJM to figures and institutions for a lifetime’s work in preparing the future generations.

In this case, awards were given to Eva Morejón, instructor at the William Soler Pioneers Palace in Regla; Jorge González, rector of Havana’s University of Medical Sciences; María Hortensia Rodríguez, founder member of the Ernesto Che Guevara Pioneers Central Palace; singer-songwriter Kiki Corona; and Esther Hirzel, director of the Cuban Film Institute’s Animation Studios.

Two paintings by Dausell Valdés were presented to Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro and Raúl as delegates of honor to the Congress.

Also present at the closing event were Vice President José Ramón Fernández, other leaders of the Communist Party, government and the mass organizations, and family members of the five Cuban heroes, who sent messages of congratulations to the pioneers on the 50th anniversary of their organization and the 49th anniversary of the Union of Young Communists (UJC).

Prior to the closing session, the 300 delegates to the Congress, representing all of Cuba, discussed the principal issues of the Congress with Vice President Esteban Lazo Hernández and José Ramón Machado Ventura.

Translated by Granma International

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