The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) on March 12 conveyed condolences to its Cuban counterpart over the death of Cuba’s revolutionary heroine Melba Hernandez Rodriguez del Rey, who passed away at the age of 93 on March 9.

The same day, a delegation from the CPV and the Vietnamese State led by Politburo member and permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Le Hong Anh came to the Cuban Embassy in Hanoi to pay final tribute to the Cuban icon.

On behalf of the Party, State, and people, Anh expressed his deep sadness over the passing in a book of condolences.

Melba Hernandez, a member of the Communist Party of Cuba’s Central Committee and a National Assembly deputy, was one of the two women who joined Fidel Castro in the famous 1953 attacks on the garrisons at Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespesdes in order to kickstart the revolution against Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship.

Born on July 28, 1921 in Las Villas, central Cuba, she held many important positions following the victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959.

In 1963, she became the first President of the Cuban Committee of Solidarity with Southern Vietnam, which is now the Cuba-Vietnam Friendship Association. She also once served as Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam.-VNA