The shooting of these young students aroused rejection inside and outside Cuba

Havana, Nov 27 (RHC) Cuba today remembers the shooting of eight medical students in 1871, one of the most atrocious crimes committed by the Spanish colonial regime in Cuba.

The events began on November 24 when a group of students, while awaiting the arrival of their teacher, toured the Espada cemetery in the Cuban colonial capital. Some played with the cart that carried corpses and one took a rose from the cemetery.

A report from the guard - mortified by the "damage" to his garden - falsely accused the boys of having desecrated the grave of journalist Gonzalo Castañón, during his lifetime a preacher of the extermination of Cubans and the repopulation of the island with Spaniards.

Historical investigations confirmed not only the falsehood of the accusation and the well-known innocence in the acts of those teenagers, but also the injustices that occurred for the 45 imprisoned.

After a first War Council, which concluded without reasons to blame them, some were released and others received minor sanctions, but Spain's impotence and thirst for political revenge for the military defeats against the Cuban independence troops was evident.

Then, the Spanish Volunteer Corps pressed for a second oral hearing with another court that sentenced five of the imprisoned and three others chosen at random to the maximum sentence.

Subsequent investigations showed that one of these last unfortunate people was not even in Havana on the day of the events.

The execution of these young men aroused rejection inside and outside the island. From the Spanish ranks, captains Nicolás Estévanez and Federico Capdevila, the public defender of the young accused, resigned from their positions.

Spain made a show of "mea culpa" in the face of the scandal caused by its cruelty and removed from their positions - after an investigation - the captain general of Cuba, Blas Villate, his second in command, Romualdo Crespo, and the political governor Dionisio López, main instigator, promoter and culprit.

As on each anniversary of the event, young medical students in Cuba are expected to carry out acts of tribute to the fallen and also denounce the atrocities that all empires commit today. (Source: PL)