CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba
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Idiomas
Minister of Revolutionary Armed Forces Passed Away in Havana.
CUBA, September 3, 2011.- Army Corps General Julio Casas Regueiro, Vice President of the Cuban Council of State and minister of Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, died on Saturday in Havana from a heart attack, the Political Bureau of Cuba’s Communist Party announced in an official note.
Casas Regueiro, who was also member of the Political Bureau of Cuba’s Communist Party, was born in Mayari Arriba, eastern Santiago de Cuba province, on February 16, 1936. He joined the guerrilla fight in Cuba under Commander Raul Castro in 1958 and took part in several combats, including the capture of the city of Guantánamo on January 1, 1959, the note reads.
After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Casas Regueiro assumed several responsibilities in the Cuban National Police, and as part of that body he fought against the mercenary invasion of Bay of Pigs.
From 1961 on, he occupied different posts in the logistics services of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and he was promoted to deputy minister in 1969. He was also chief of the Eastern Army, Chief of the Anti-air Forces and the Air Force, and First Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces, and was appointed Minister in February 2008.
Julio Casas Regueiro was also founder of Cuba’s Communist Party and member of its Central Committee since the First Congress of the organization. At the 4th Party Congress he was elected member of the Political Bureau, a condition ratified by the 5th and 6th Congresses of the Communist Party.
He received titles and decorations like the Honorific Title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba and the Playa Giron Order.
The mortal remains of Julio Casas Regueiro were cremated and will be taken to the Mausoleum of the eastern Frank Pais Third Front, where they will be paid the corresponding military honors.
The Cuban people will pay tribute to Casas Regueiro next Monday when Official Mourning will be declared in the country, concludes the press release by the Political Bureau of Cuba’s Communist Party. (Cubaminrex-RHC)