Umsebenzi Online, Volume 14, No. 38, 1 OCTOBER 2015
In this Issue:
* An outstanding revolutionary has fallen Comrade Jorge Risquet
Valdés-Saldaña
Red Alert:
An outstanding revolutionary has fallen, Comrade Jorge Risquet
STATEMENT OF THE SOUTH ARFICAN COMMUNIST PARTY
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is greatly saddened by the news of
the death of a great revolutionary, an outstanding leader, finest combatant,
and an internationalist of note, Comrade Jorge Risquet Valdés-Saldaña. The
SACP expresses its deepest, sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family
of Comrade Risquet, the Communist Party and the people of Cuba, their
government and the international movement for socialism, peace.
Comrade Risquet, as he was affectionately known, a co-founder of the
Communist Party of Cuba, died on Monday 28 September in Havana, at the age
of 85. Comrade Risquet was a member of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Cuba since its founding. He was a member of the Party’s
Secretariat from 1973-1990, Political Bureau from 1980-1991, and Deputy to
the National Assembly of People’s Power from its founding, following the
Cuban Revolution which occurred in 1959, to 1993.
Comrade Risquet received various decorations and distinctions for his
selfless dedication and loyalty in the struggle for the liberation of the
Cuban people. In October 2012, he was honoured by President Jacob Zuma on
behalf of our democratic people as a whole. He was bestowed the Order of the
Companion of OR Tambo for friendship shown to South Africa and its people
through active expression of solidarity, support, peace and co-operation.
After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, in which a United States
backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar was overthrown, Comrade Risquet,
who was kidnapped, tortured and imprisoned during Batista’s dictatorship,
took over the roles of Head of the Patricio Lumumba Internationalist
Battalion in Congo Brazzaville and Director of the Cuban Internationalist
Civil Mission in the People’s Republic of Angola between 1975 and 1979.
Among his many engagements in the struggle for African independence and
national liberation struggles Comrade Risquet led the Cuban delegation in
four-party negotiations between Cuba, Angola, the U.S. and South Africa in
1988. His death reminds us of the great sacrifices of Cuba’s
internationalism and the crucial role it has played in our own continent in
the struggle for universal human emancipation.
The people of Africa will forever remember the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
which raged on from the end of 1987 and pushed through into 1988, where,
Cuban soldiers fought along their Angolan comrades, shed their blood for the
liberation of Africa, defeating, for the first time, the arrogant army of
apartheid South Africa. This historical victory produced the liberation of
Angola and Namibia and paved the way to the negotiations which led to the
ending of apartheid in South Africa.
The SACP dips the Red Banner in memory of revolutionary stalwart, Comrade
Risquet.
In memory of Comrade Risquet, the SACP reiterates its just call, to the
United States, to lift its illegal, inhumane, imperialist economic blockade
of Cuba; to evacuate, unconditionally, the Cuban territory of Guantanamo
Bay; to end, with immediate effect, torture and gross violations of human
rights on the occupied territory!
* Statement of the South African Communist Party, 1 October 2015
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[Umsebenzi Online] Red Alert: The SACP dips the Red Banner in memory of revolutionary stalwart, an internationalist of note, Comrade Jorge Risquet Valdés-Saldaña: Umsebenzi Online, Volume 14, No. 38, 1 OCTOBER 2015
South African Communist Party Department for Communications, Information and Media Thu, 01 Oct 2015 02:04:41 -0700
