The authorities of Ho Chi Minh City on March 13 came to the Cuban Consulate General to lay a wreath and pay tribute to Cuban heroine Melba Hernandez Rodriguez del Rey, who passed away on March 9 at the age of 92.

Le Hoang Quan, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, who led the delegation, offered the deepest sympathies of the municipal Party, administration and people to the Party and State of Cuba and Hernandez’s family on the heroine’s passing.

Hernandez is not only a heroine of Cuba but also a great friend of Vietnam, Quan wrote on the funeral book.

The people of Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City in particular will forever value Hernandez’s warm sentiments towards the country as well as her contributions to the development of the Vietnam-Cuba ties, he stressed.

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 once served as Cuban Ambassador to Vietnam.

Also on March 13, representatives of many agencies and organisations as well as locals in the city came to the Cuban Consulate General to bid farewell to the Cuban heroine.-VNA