CUBA celebrated the 65th anniversary of the revolution today as First Secretary of the Communist Party Raul Castro vowed that Cubans would remain loyal to the ideas of Fidel despite “Yankee imperialism” and economic blockades.

Tens of thousands joined a rally at Santiago de Cuba where they heard Mr Castro pay tribute to the revolutionaries who stormed the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes garrisons sparking the downfall of President Fulgencio Batista who was ousted on January 1 1959.

He praised the intellectual architect and leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, whose body is buried in Santiago de Cuba.

“None of those who had the privilege of participating in these actions under the command of Fidel, could imagine that we would still be here today, in a free country,” he told those gathered.

Mr Castro expressed solidarity between the Cuban people, the government and the party with the revolutionary governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua who are under increased attack from the US as they seek to foment regime change.

And he slammed the trumped-up corruption charges against former Brazilian president Lula, demanding his release from prison.

“We reiterate the call for freedom for Lula da Silva in Brazil. There is no doubt that if elections were to be held tomorrow, Lula would win the Brazilian presidency in the first round,” he told the crowds.

He explained Cuba is looking to improve relations with the US, but that this must be on the basis of equality. Mr Castro said diplomatic relations have been strained since Washington accused Cuba of carrying out “sonic attacks” against US staff in Havana in August 2017, despite no evidence.

He accused the US of “implementing a racist, xenophobic agenda, and with the complicity of certain governments, has attempted to revive the fledging Organisation of American States (OAS),” a neoliberal bloc accused of pushing regime change across Central and Latin America.

And he recalled the memorandum of 1960 in which a US official noted that the majority of the Cuban people supported the revolutionary government and “the only foreseeable means of alienating internal support is through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship…to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”

“I have never read anything more cynical than those words,” he charged.