NUMERO UNO << LA MASACRE DEL RIO CANIMAR >>
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Pedro Martori Apr 8, 2000, 7:00 am show options
Newsgroups: soc.culture.cuba
From: "Pedro Martori" <pmart...@globalserve.net> - Find messages by this
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Date: 2000/04/08
Subject: NUMERO UNO << LA MASACRE DEL RIO CANIMAR >>
What was once a beautiful corner of what could be called a Paradise,
the stretch of a flowing water body : THE CANIMAR RIVER, became
the scenary of one of the most abominable massacres and crimes
committed in Cuba under the rule of the present tyrann : Kastro.
THIS IS THE STORY :
On July6, 1980, the riverboat " XX Anniversary"" set off from "the Canimar
Abajo "
tourist center located on the margins of the Canimar River in the province
of Matanzas with over 60 passengers holding tickets for what they believed
would be a tranquil scenic cruise along the river. Among those 60 persons
were three young men secretly hoping to have purchased what could be their
tickets to freedom.
Little could those young men or their fellow passengers forsee,however,
that by day's end fewer thant 20 of them would be left alive, witnesses to
a MASSACRE OF INNOCENT CUBAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN amongst the victims and
without
parallel in the History of the Island,or the whole continent,for that
matter.
AN EASY WAY OUT ...
The Mariel exodus of the spring of 1980 had seen nearly 130,000 cubans flee
their
island.But for youth such as Sergio and Silvio Aguila Yanes,Roberto
Calveiro Leon,
and Humberto Martinez Echazabal - 19,18,16, and 19 years old
respectively - obtaining a visa or the regime's permission to exit or leave
their country was nearly
impossible. Since all youths in Cuba are required to serve three years in
the military,they were only among the thousands of adolescents prevented
from leabving
Cuba with their own relatives or parents during the Mariel boatlift.
Sergio Aguila Yanes, at 19 , was already a sergeant in the cuban
military,could no longer support the system that allowed him no individual
freedoms and civil rights.
He subsequently decided to leave the island.He soon recruited his younger
brother Silvio and his friends Roberto and Humberto, and together they
planned their escape from Cuba. It was Sergio who first suggested that the
four takeover one of the tourists boats crusing the Canimar River.
After observing the boat's schedules,travel patterns,and security measures
on the boat,the boys agreed that this would be a relatively safe means to
materialize their dreams of getting their Freedom. The boys determined that
in order to seize complete control of the boat they would have, somehow, to
disarm the boat's onboard guards.Though Sergio obtained firearms from the
weapons room of his military unit,he however,counseled the other boys that
he did not anticipate a confrontation in which guns would actually be used
and fired.
Sergio's plan was that once the group had taken control of the boat they
would be well on their way to the United States before the government
officials became aware
of their escape.Sergio further assured the other boys that even if theur
plot was uncovered,no exchange of gunfire would occur because the lives of
the innocent passengers would be jeopardized.
After arriving by bus in Playa,Matanzas, the four boys walked towards the
boat dock with their weapons concealed in a handbag. On the way to the
port,Humberto left to purchase cigarettes and never returned...
When the three remaining boys arrived at the dock ,they found the boat had
run aground earlier while attempting to dock and was still not ready to
depart,To add to the teenagers anxiety,several government officials passed
by to investigate the scene.Finally,nearly three hours later,the "XX
ANNIVERSARY " set sail on the Canimar River.
THIS STORY WILL CONTINUE IN A NEXT CHAPTER....
CANIMAR RIVER MASSACRE ( 1980 )