Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

Havana, February  27 (RHC) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel recalled on Saturday the 147th anniversary of the death of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, initiator of the independence struggles in 1868 and first president of the Republic in Arms.

Cuban day to go to the essences bequeathed to us by Céspedes, whom Martí described as a 'volcano, coming, tremendous and imperfect, from the bowels of the earth, to become the Father of the Homeland', the president wrote on Twitter.

According to historiography, the lawyer and landowner freed his slaves in La Demajagua farm, in the eastern province of Granma, on October 10, 1868, and invited them to independence or death to start the war of liberation against Spain.

With the rank of major general of the Liberation Army, he assumed in April 1869 the presidency of the Republic in Arms, but the tensions and disagreements with the House of Representatives led the latter to depose him on October 27, 1873.

The deposition was the prelude to the death of who is considered in Cuba Father of the Homeland because he was deprived of aides and escort. At the same time, he was forced to leave the government, according to researchers Hortensia Pichardo and Fernando Portuondo.

After the dismissal, Céspedes settled in San Lorenzo, in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where, on February 27, 1874, he died in unequal combat against the Spanish troops.