After 145 years of the historic Baraguá Protest, Cubans on Wednesday recalled the bravery of Major General Antonio Maceo, who refused to accept peace without independence from the Spanish colony.

Havana, Cuba.- The event took place on March 15, 1878, in Mangos de Baraguá, eastern Santiago de Cuba province, where Maceo and other senior commanders, officers, and eastern troops under his command participated.

According to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, Maceo, also known as the “Bronze Titan,” took the patriotic and revolutionary spirit of the Cuban people to its highest point with the order of disobedience.

With the iconic phrase “No, we do not understand each other” to Spanish General Arsenio Martínez, the Pact of Zanjón came to an end, in which Spain, after ten years of war, ceased hostilities without a solution to the colonial situation that rose the Cubans in arms.

That agreement was inadmissible for those who, from the Cuban countryside, maintained the will for the definitive liberation of the country and were willing to continue the war actions.

Those patriotic principles were raised by Fidel Castro during the last stage of the struggle for full sovereignty and ratified with the Oath of Baraguá on February 19, 2000, when he said that Cuba would be an eternal Baraguá. (PL)