Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, Nov 27.- At the same moment that the shots were heard that took the lives of the eight medical students, victims of the violence of the Volunteer Corps, the captain of the Spanish army Nicolás Estévanez, who he was on the sidewalk of the Louvre, broke his sword and tore the stripes off his epaulette in repudiation of such abominable crime.
The workers at the Hotel England had to restrain him, such was his indignation.
In recognition of this worthy gesture, in 1937 a bronze plaque was placed in the place where the event occurred and from that date the then historian of the city, Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, promoted a tribute act that the Office of the Historian of the city City of Havana has continued to this day.
Thus, this November 27, when students and people go to the esplanade of La Punta to pay tribute to the eight murdered students, and on the Louvre Sidewalk the solidarity action of Estévanez is remembered, the remembrance of the Abakuá martyrs should not be missed. who, in a practically suicidal gesture, tried to save the young people and were shot dead in the surroundings of the place, as well as five other black people, also ñáñigos, who lost their lives in an armed protest against the brutal act.
Also remembered will be Spanish Army Captain Federico Capdevila, the students' defense lawyer, who broke his sword in public in rejection of the arbitrary sentence and opposed continuing to serve in the armed forces of colonialism. “My obligation as a Spaniard, my sacred duty as a defender, my honor as a knight and my honor as an officer, is to protect and protect the innocent: these are my forty-five clients,” were his words. (Text and photo: Workers)
