On the afternoon of June 29, Army Corps General Sixto Batista Santana died, after a long illness.

He was born to a humble family on March 28, 1932, in the municipality of San Luis, in the province of Santiago de Cuba. At only six years of age he was obliged to begin working to help support his family, and was thus not able to attend school until he was 12 years old, completing only the Fifth Grade.

This harsh reality led him to collaborate with the July 26th Movement in 1957, taking responsibility for a group involved in sabotage and the capture of weapons.

In 1958, he joined the Mario Muñoz Third Front led by Comandante Juan Almeida Bosque and participated in a number of combat actions, until Fidel assigned him in 1959 to the vanguard of a column moving toward Havana.

In his professional life as a combatant and officer of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), he advanced from the rank of soldier to that of Army Corps General, a level he reached in 2004. He held a variety of command positions, from company leader to Chief of FAR Political Leadership.

As a result of his leadership qualities and his achievements, he was chosen to study at the officers’ academy in Matanzas and the General Máximo Gómez FAR Academy.

He served as an internationalist in Cuba’s missions to Angola and Ethiopia, participating directly in combat action. He was a member of the commission which organized the return of remains of Cubans who died in combat on internationalist missions, known as Operation Tribute.

Sixto Batista was a revolutionary cadre, recognized for his ability, knowledge and experience not only in military tasks, but in other institutions. He was head of the Party Central Committee’s Military Department; Head of Political Leadership for the Ministry of the Interior; National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution; and undertook a variety of tasks as directed by the leadership of the Party and the state.

He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Cuba, given his meritorious service, and remained a party militant until his death.

He was a member of the Central Committee, from the Party’s First Congress until the Sixth; as well as an alternate to the Political Bureau, the Central Committee Secretariat and the Council of State, moreover serving as a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power.

He was awarded a number of decorations as a result of his contributions to the homeland, and the attitude he took in the completion of missions assigned. Outstanding among these distinctions are those for his service in the revolutionary underground and the war of liberation; the Ernesto Che Guevara Order in the first degree; the Antonio Maceo Order; First Class Internationalist Combatant medal; First Class Eliseo Reyes medal; and the Service to the Homeland honor.

The life and work of compañero Army Corps General Sixto Batista Santana constitute exemplary models of modesty, honesty, limitless dedication to his profession, to the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the Ministry of the Interior and the Revolution, to which must be added his unwavering loyalty to Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz and Army General Raúl Castro Ruz.

According to the wishes of Army Corps General Sixto Batista Santana, his cadaver was cremated and ashes made available for public respects on June 30, in the Veterans Pantheon within Havana’s Colón Cemetery.