Cuba celebrates today the Day of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), and the 64th anniversary of the landing of the Granma yacht that started the guerrilla fight against Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship (1952-1959).

On December 2, 1956, 82 expeditionaries led by Fidel Castro arrived in eastern Cuba after setting sail on November 25 from the Mexican port of Tuxpan.

After being surprised and dispersed by the troops of Batista's army, the group of young people regrouped and formed the nucleus of the Rebel Army that fought the dictatorship in the mountains of the east of the island until the revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959.

The historiography records the moment of the reunion at Cinco Palmas, in the Sierra Maestra, when Fidel Castro, upon gathering one of the combatants and seven rifles, exclaimed: 'Now we are going to win the war', as an expression of faith in victory.

In honor of that heoric deed, the FAR were founded in 1961.