By: Mark Fitzgerald The official Cuban newspaper Granma celebrated its 40th anniversary Wednesday night with a gala event presided over by Communist Party leaders who congratulated the daily with the kind of rhetoric little heard since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Esteban Lazo Hern?ndez, identified as a member of the Political Bureau, called Granma "the sword and shield of the Party and the Revolution in expressing our truths," according to the English-language article on its Web site, http://www.granma.cu/ingles/index.html.
"It has not been perfect," he added, according to the article written by staff writer Gabriel Davalos, "as in the case of any publication or human endeavor, but despite any temporary or circumstantial dissatisfaction, Granma has always been a tireless soldier of the Party, the Revolution and the people, a firm combatant, unwaveringly loyal to the principles, ethics and profession of journalism."
The daily said he urged journalists to continue "exposing the hypocrisy of the (U.S.) empire" and to be "a tribune of wholehearted condemnation of the genocidal blockade and Bush's neo-Platt, annexationist plans for Cuba."
Founded in 1965, the newspaper takes its name from the boat President Fidel Castro and 81 other rebels used to sail from exile in Mexico to start their fight against the Fulgencio Batista regime in 1956.
Castro did not attend the event, but sent a message urging Granma's staff to "continue producing militant and revolutionary journalism on the same level as that historic cabin cruiser, whose passengers were filled with decency, hope and a desire for justice, and defied bad weather and persecution to renew the armed struggle and achieve a victory that can never be snatched away from us."
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