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   From: pedro1940@progression.net   
      
   NUMERO UNO << LA MASACRE DEL RIO CANIMAR >>Only 1 message in topic - view as   
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   Pedro Martori  Apr 8, 2000, 7:00 am     show options   
      
   Newsgroups: soc.culture.cuba   
   From: "Pedro Martori"  - Find messages by this   
   author   
   Date: 2000/04/08   
   Subject: NUMERO UNO << LA MASACRE DEL RIO CANIMAR >>   
      
     What was once a beautiful corner of what could be called a Paradise,   
     the stretch of a flowing water body : THE CANIMAR RIVER, became   
     the scenary of one of the most abominable massacres and crimes   
     committed in Cuba under the rule of the present tyrann : Kastro.   
      
   THIS IS THE STORY :   
      
     On July6, 1980, the riverboat " XX Anniversary"" set off from "the Canimar   
   Abajo "   
     tourist center located on the margins of the Canimar River in the province   
   of Matanzas with over 60 passengers holding tickets for what they believed   
   would be a tranquil scenic cruise along the river. Among those 60 persons   
   were three young men  secretly hoping to have purchased what could  be their   
   tickets to freedom.   
      
     Little  could  those young men or their fellow passengers forsee,however,   
   that  by day's end fewer thant 20 of them would be left alive, witnesses to   
   a MASSACRE OF INNOCENT CUBAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN amongst the victims and   
   without   
    parallel in the History of the Island,or the whole continent,for that   
   matter.   
      
   AN EASY WAY OUT ...   
      
    The Mariel exodus of the spring of 1980 had seen nearly 130,000 cubans flee   
   their   
     island.But for youth such as Sergio and Silvio Aguila Yanes,Roberto   
   Calveiro Leon,   
     and Humberto Martinez Echazabal - 19,18,16, and 19 years old   
   respectively - obtaining a visa or the regime's permission to exit or leave   
   their country was nearly   
     impossible. Since all youths in Cuba are required to serve three years in   
   the military,they were only  among the thousands of adolescents prevented   
   from leabving   
     Cuba with their own relatives or parents during the Mariel boatlift.   
      
   Sergio Aguila Yanes, at 19 , was already a sergeant in the cuban   
   military,could no longer support the system that allowed him no individual   
   freedoms and civil rights.   
   He subsequently decided to leave the island.He soon recruited his younger   
   brother Silvio and his friends Roberto and Humberto, and together they   
   planned their escape from Cuba. It was Sergio who first suggested that the   
   four takeover one of the tourists boats crusing the Canimar River.   
      
   After observing the boat's schedules,travel patterns,and security measures   
   on the boat,the boys agreed that this would be a relatively safe means to   
   materialize their dreams of getting their Freedom. The boys determined that   
   in order to seize complete control of the boat they would have, somehow, to   
   disarm the boat's onboard guards.Though Sergio obtained firearms from the   
   weapons room of his military unit,he however,counseled the other boys that   
   he did not anticipate a confrontation in which guns would actually be used   
   and fired.   
      
   Sergio's plan was that once the group had taken control of the boat they   
   would be well on their way to the United States before the government   
   officials became aware   
    of their escape.Sergio further assured the other boys that even if theur   
   plot was uncovered,no exchange of gunfire would occur because the lives of   
   the innocent passengers would be jeopardized.   
      
   After arriving by bus in Playa,Matanzas, the four boys walked towards the   
   boat dock with their weapons concealed in a handbag. On the way to the   
   port,Humberto left to purchase cigarettes and never returned...   
   When the three remaining boys arrived at the dock ,they found the boat had   
   run aground earlier while attempting to dock and was still not ready to   
   depart,To add to the teenagers anxiety,several government officials passed   
   by to investigate the scene.Finally,nearly three hours later,the  "XX   
   ANNIVERSARY " set sail on the Canimar River.   
      
     THIS STORY WILL CONTINUE IN A NEXT CHAPTER....   
      
    CANIMAR RIVER MASSACRE ( 1980 )   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)