PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba — Cubans are still celebrating an important anniversary as Sunday marked what’s considered one of the island nation’s most sacred moments.

It’s the 73rd anniversary of what is considered to be the birth of the revolution.

Absent from the celebrations for the first time is 95-year-old Raul Castro.

It was on July 26, 1953 that brothers Fidel and Raul Castro assaulted the Moncada Barracks in Santiago in a failed attempt to overthrow the government.

They would succeed six years later.

Every year, the communist island commemorates the anniversary in a different province.

On Sunday, it was in Pinar Del Rio.

Raul Castro released a statement saying, in part:

“Receive my affection and recognition for having earned, through your effort, dedication to the revolutionary cause.”

Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel used his speech to issue a scathing condemnation of Washington D.C.’s fuel embargo and economic sanctions that has led to a critical humanitarian crisis on the island.

As for the Cuban people, they are fed up, staging protests every day, banging their pots and pans in frustration.

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