Camagüey was the scene of important events during the clandestine struggle and the Rebel Army, as well as the context of our patriotic, political and social history of this entire period that led to the triumph of the revolution. Camagüey youth have always been taking a step forward and being the most radical part against the Batista dictatorship, sabotaging electoral rallies, distributing proclamations, acts of attacks and sabotage. In response to these events, the henchmen took it as a rule to scattered the corpses of tortured revolutionaries around the city to spread terror, awakening, on the contrary, popular anger.

In the last days of 1958, eleven bodies appear in different parts of the city. Examples of these monstrosities are the murders that occurred on December 12th and 16th. On December 12th, at the Hatibonico river bridge, the bodies of Melchor Batista Varona, Roberto García Blanco, Rafael González Osorio and Máximo Martínez Cabrera appeared; they were tortured and savagely beaten days before by the Batista tyranny, so that they could said on the location of the Rebel Army troops, but silence was always their answer.

By December 16th, the bodies of Juan Félix Quintanilla, Antonio Suárez Domínguez and José Ramón Sánchez Artiles appeared; young people killed near the central Maceo square; rhey were detained in the old Agramonte barracks and savagely tortured. These incidents did not prevent the youth of Camagüey from continuing to fight to see their ideal of a free Cuba fulfilled.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García