HAVANA—University students led by the Union of Young Communists march behind banner that reads “Down With Yankee Imperialism.” They were part of a demonstration of some 15,000 medical, university and high school students here Nov. 27 to commemorate eight medical students executed by the Spanish colonialists in 1871 and to express support for the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the unbroken course of its leadership and revolutionary government today.

While students elsewhere are demanding decent free education, we are here to defend it, Lisara Corona, a medical student speaking at a rally before the march, told the crowd. Leading the march behind a banner reading “We Young People Will Not Fail,” medical students were joined by professors and health professionals wearing white jackets, while thousands of high school students carried a banner declaring, “Long Live Fidel and Raúl [Castro].” The march began from the steps of the University of Havana, the long-time center of revolutionary student politics.

—MATILDE ZIMMERMANN