Havana: Cuba recalls the landing in the east, 127 years ago today, of the National Hero José Martí and the Dominican General Máximo Gómez to join the leadership of the independence war against Spain, Prensa Latina publishes.
Both heroes arrived at Playita de Cajobabo on April 11, 1895 after a difficult journey by sea, a fact that the historical leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, described as an extraordinary feat.
On February 24, 1895, Cubans resumed their struggle for independence from Spain, a contest organized by José Martí, at the head of the Cuban Revolutionary Party.
However, the outbreak occurred without the presence of the main leaders, who should have arrived as soon as possible on expeditions to command the insurgent forces.
On April 1, 1895, Antonio Maceo, Flor Crombet, José Maceo and other patriots arrived on Cuban shores through Duaba, in the east of the country.
Gómez, Martí, Marcos del Rosario and others arrived 10 days later, after a night crossing.
?They lower the boat. It rains heavily at the start. We go bad. Diverse ideas and riots in the boat (?) We arrived at a pebble beach, the little beach at the foot of Cajobabo, I stayed in the boat the last one emptying it. Jump. Bliss great », Wrote the National Hero in his campaign diary.
According to historical documents, the expedition members left Montecristi, in the Dominican Republic, for Cuba on April 1 aboard the schooner Brothers and a day later they arrived at the island of Gran Inagua, where they discovered that the sailors had deserted.
On April 5, after an unsuccessful search for a new crew, they boarded the German freighter Nordstrand bound for Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, and then Port Antonio on Jamaica’s north coast.
The ship’s captain sympathized with the cause of the Cubans and accepted the expedition members as undercover passengers.
They arrived in Cap-Haïtien on the 6th, re-embarked on the 9th and in the early hours of April 11th they arrived at Matheu Town, the capital of Gran Inagua.
There they steamed the boat that would take them to Cajobabo beach, after the Nordstrand brought them closer to the southern coast of Cuba.
On the night of April 11, 1995, Fidel Castro paid tribute to the expeditionaries and walked with a Cuban flag through that place at the same time that Martí and Gómez landed 100 years earlier.