HAVANA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Cuba paid tribute on Thursday to one of its most revered guerrilla heroes, Camilo Cienfuegos, who died 40 years ago in a mysterious plane accident months after helping launch the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
Thousands of Cubans across the Caribbean island took part in special ceremonies organised by the ruling Communist Party during a day dedicated to the memory of the rebel commander, known here simply as 'Camilo'.
At the main event, in Havana's Revolution Square, a crowd gathered under a huge portrait of the bearded guerrilla, who helped lead now president Fidel Castro's rebel army to victory against former dictator Fulgencio Batista.
``Camilo has not died nor will he ever die. His example, together with 'Che', will always serve to inspire our struggle,'' Esteban Lazo, first secretary for the Communist Party in Havana, told the crowd.
He was referring to Argentine-born Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara, a close friend of Cienfuegos who was also a commander of Castro's guerrilla army during the 1956-59 war.
Lazo added that Cienfuegos' example was especially useful ``in these difficult times'' -- a reference to Cuba's decade-old economic recession since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The event, presided over by Castro's brother and armed forces' head Raul Castro, ended with the Cuban communists' familiar rallying cry: ``Socialism or Death!''
Elsewhere, soldiers tossed floral wreaths into the sea off Havana in honour of Cienfuegos, whose plane went missing on Oct. 28, 1959, when he was flying along the island's northern coast.
Officially, his disappearance was an accident, although some opponents of Castro have speculated he may have been the victim of sabotage.
Among ordinary Cubans, Cienfuegos' memory is cherished. ``He was the most loved of the rebel commanders,'' said one Cuban man attending the floral ceremony on Havana's sea-front Malecon.
Cuban television repeatedly showed grainy black-and-white images of an exhausted but exhilarated Cienfuegos riding down from the mountains after the revolution four decades ago.
19:45 10-28-99
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