From sunrise, throngs of military personnel, government officials and civilians lined the route between Havana's airport and the Armed Forces Ministry to applaud home the remains of 32 Cuban troops killed in Venezuela as they passed by in a funeral cortege.
The country's leadership – from Raul Castro to President Miguel Diaz Canel – were at the airport to receive the boxes carrying the cremated ashes of their "32 fallen heroes".
In the lobby of the ministry building, each box was draped in a Cuban flag and set next to a photograph of the respective soldier or intelligence officer beneath the words "honour and glory".
But despite the pomp and full military honours, this has been a chastening experience for the Cuban Revolution.
First, it is believed to be the biggest loss of Cuban combatants at the hands of the US military since the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. The fact that six-and-a-half decades have passed with barely a comparable firefight between Cuban and US troops, either during the Cold War or afterwards, shows how rare it is.
