On June 30, 1957, Josué País García, Floro Vistel Somodeville and Salvador Pascual Salcedo, young members of the 26th of July National Revolutionary Movement, fell in combat in the city of Santiago de Cuba, as victims of savage and unlawful crimes committed by hired assassins of Batista’s tyranny at a time when the Rebel Army was growing stronger and spreading throughout the Sierra Maestra Mountains.
Fresh in our memory are the testimonies about the massacre that day of these youths as a result of repressive maneuvers that dictator Fulgencio Batista’s army was carrying out since dawn, whereas his acolytes intended to hold an electoral rally in the central Céspedes Park to portray Cuba as a stable country with a steady government, a vain effort that failed to disguise the spate of murders, tortures and crackdowns of all kinds which they used to subdue the people
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In that year and in different heroic contexts of the citizen underground struggle, José Antonio Echeverría, the revolutionary fighters of 7 Humboldt St. and several young people involved in the expedition of the yacht Corynthia, who had come to support the insurrection in the highlands, had already been killed.
Along with the ensuing pain and mourning, outrage and anger marked national life, as it was not easy to wake up every day to the news of new killings, disappearances and tortures of the best of its people and youth.
However, there were encouraging reports of the armed struggle in the mountains: May 28 saw the first resounding victory of the Rebel Army in El Uvero. The consolidation and expansion of the fight in the mountains, led by Fidel Castro, was a fact.
On June 30, the famous gangster Rolando Masferrer was leading a paramilitary force in eastern Cuba said to be made up of about 1,500 hired killers whose goal it was to counter a revolutionary movement, one which was growing stronger every day and gave the tyrant no respite.
Heading the electoral act in Céspedes Park was Masferrer, who posted his men, known as the Tigers, on every street corner, along with the soldiers. Frank País, National Chief of Action and Sabotage of the 26th of July Movement, ordered to sabotage the rigged act, which was very poorly attended despite all the government’s publicity.
His younger brother Josué, 19, and his friend were hiding in a nearby house and following the event on the radio, waiting to hear the detonation of a bomb placed the day before under a sewer so that it would explode near the stage shortly after the beginning of the electoral farce. The sound of the explosion would be his cue to join the fray. However, the bomb didn’t go off for casual reasons.
Time was running, so Josué, Floro and Salvador went out in a car to do their thing, but the Tigers saw them and started shooting at them. Floro and Salvador were killed on the spot. Josué was wounded and fell prisoner.
José María Salas Cañizares, another notorious assassin, gave the apparent order to take him to the hospital. They put him in the vehicle and shot him in the temple. As it was later verified, it was his only lethal injury.
A month later, on July 30, 1957, his older brother Frank also fell under criminal bullets in Callejón del Muro along with other valuable comrades.
In addition to the M-26-7, Josué País had been with Frank in Acción Revolucionaria Oriental (Aro), which later became Acción Nacional Revolucionaria (ANR).
Floro Vistel Somodeville had also joined the struggle in the city early on. He participated in the November 30 uprising in support of the Granma yacht landing and other dangerous actions with devotion and courage.
Salvador Pascual Salcedo also had a history of self-sacrifice and commitment to the revolutionary movement, doing anything from raising funds to fulfilling missions of any kind.
That day the nation was once again shaken, but in the midst of death, anger and pain something was growing and becoming increasingly strong, as our heroic youth kept multiplying.
