Mario Águila Bernal was a young revolutionary who dedicated part of his life to the fight against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista from the ranks of the July 26th Movement and the Rebel Army.

He was born on October 22nd, 1938 in the old province of Las Villas. The young man joined the fight against the prevailing Batista regime, offering his help to the guerrilla forces.

After the events of Pino Tres, he was entrusted to carry out the function of observing the movements of the forces of the tyranny and obtain information in the houses of the henchmen and collaborators of the army and report it to the guerrilla command.

With the creation of the clandestine militias of the July 26th Movement, Mario became part of them.

When the revolution triumphed, he participated in the taking of Camagüey city, as well as in the action of evicting the forces of tyranny that were resisting in the provincial hospital; Furthermore, he took part in the capture of henchmen and fugitives from the revolutionary justice. After being discharged from the Rebel Army, he carried out construction work until June of the same year, when he was called up to the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR, by its acronym in Spanish).

In November 1960 he carried out a task of strengthening the ranks of the Department of State Security, being selected for his selfless work and placed in the Operations Unit of Camagüey, where he began to serve in the garrison.

His attitude was always outstanding when occupying the position of patrolman and participating in the capture of numerous counterrevolutionaries.

Revolutionary labor

In August 1962, together with other comrades, he received the order to intercept a car full of counterrevolutionary bandits who, after having escaped from a penitentiary center, planned to rise up.

They fulfilled their mission and cut off the bandits’ route on the outskirts of the city, in the place known as the Santayana Curve, from the Central Highway heading West. The counterrevolutionaries were heavily armed, this caused an intense shootout in which a bandit was killed and Mario was seriously wounded in the head.

After making great efforts to save his life, he passed away on August 27th, 1962.

This young State Security fighter devoted his entire life to defending the ideals of his homeland and not being humiliated any more by a corrupt government. This constitutes an imperishable and worthy example for the current generations of Cuban revolutionaries.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García