Sergio del Valle Jiménez

Someone once said that Sergio del Valle was always a gentleman. And a characteristic of this Hero of the Republic of Cuba, Commander of the Rebel Army and later General of Division, was his modesty, his simplicity, his industriousness.

Thus it was always, whether he was a guerrilla physician, whether later Chief in the guerrilla, whether Chief of the General Staff of the FAR, whether Minister of Interior or of Public Health.

He was born on April 15, 1927, being the eldest of five siblings, from a very humble family in the Pogolotti neighborhood, in Marianao. He studied at the institute of that municipality. They were very hard times for the family economy.

Sergio traveled daily on foot to the institute, walking about four kilometers each day. To help pay for his expenses and ease the family situation, he became a newspaper delivery boy.

At the institute he distinguished himself as an athlete, achieving important triumphs in this field. He also participated actively in strikes against the arbitrary measures dictated by the Minister of Education at that time, as well as against the increase in bus fares.

Studying Medicine at the University of Havana in 1952, he took direct part in student demonstrations against the tyranny. His revolutionary concerns grew when the document History Will Absolve Me began to circulate in Havana.

As a medical student he became interested in the specialties of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Cardiology. He graduated as a physician in 1954. He was active in a clandestine cell of the Movement 26 of July, in the América Arias Maternity Hospital and in response to Fidel's call to physicians to join the struggle in the Sierra Maestra, he offered himself along with other comrades. Upon being accepted, Del Valle went to Santiago de Cuba where he made contact with Frank País and went up to the Sierra in mid-1957.

Already in the guerrilla, he acted as a physician with the Mambi tradition re-enacted by Fidel's orders, of treating and caring for both the wounded from the rebel ranks and members of the army of Batista's tyranny.

His first combat action was in the battle of Palma Mocha. In the Sierra Maestra he participated as a physician and as a soldier under Fidel's orders for a few days, later under the orders of Che, of Ramiro Valdés and Camilo Cienfuegos.

Sergio del Valle obtained the rank of captain in September of 1958 when the departure of the Invading Column No. 2 "Antonio Maceo" toward the West was being prepared. Comrade Fidel, in an appearance on Cuban television on March 26, 1962, said about Sergio:
Sergio del Valle, physician who after the combats remained with the wounded, without escort, surrounded by troops of the tyranny, caring for the sick, saving lives, later joining the fighting force marching alongside Camilo Cienfuegos as Second Chief of the Glorious Invasion, earning the prestige and admiration of all.

After the triumph of the Revolution, Del Valle assumed different responsibilities, fulfilling in each one of them the missions that were assigned to him. First, he was Director of the Clinical Surgical Hospital, later Under-secretary of Public Health, then Chief of Military Health. Some time later he was named Military Chief of Matanzas. He also served as Chief of the Revolutionary Air Force and from 1961, by decision of the Revolutionary Government, as Chief of the General Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. Later he would assume responsibilities as Minister of Interior and later of Public Health. He was a member of the National Leadership of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution (PURS) and of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba.

After the death of this outstanding combatant, comrade Fidel wrote some Reflections In Honor of Sergio del Valle, on November 16, 2007:

Sergio and I had the privilege of being there at the command post located to the right of the mouth of the Almendares River at dawn on April 15, when United States B-26 bombers with Cuban insignias and mercenary pilots attacked the air bases of Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and the civil airport of Santiago de Cuba, 46 years ago.

It was a preventive and surprise attack against this dark corner of the world. With Sergio I communicated by telephone from any town near the Central Highway when I was heading towards Girón on April 17.

In the midst of the battle that our infantry and our tanks were waging there, he from the command post informed me that the enemy was attacking west of the Capital. It was a drill ordered by the United States to protect the invaders of Girón, which they know as Bay of Pigs.

You marched, Sergio, with Camilo toward Pinar del Río in the Invading Column. I still had not learned that war is won when enemy operating forces have been destroyed. I was guided at that moment by the history of Cuba without realizing that on our isolated island an Ayacucho was not possible. I risked Camilo's forces and the Che's forces, with which we would have hastened the fall of the tyranny.

You and I were also at the command post when in the October Crisis of 1962 we were on the brink of a nuclear war. We have lived exceptional times that recur in an increasingly threatening way for humanity.

Your lessons and your example will endure.

I pay tribute to your memory