Monumento a los Mártires de Regla 

The September 12 massacre in Regla, a municipality in Havana, is one of Batista's countless massacres. Executing children without trial and torturing women were routine tasks for Batista's army.

A monument was erected in El Emboque Square in memory of the September 12 massacre. Every September 12th, the people of the coastal city make their way to the cemetery where the remains of the combatants rest, to lay flowers in memory of those who gave their lives for the dream of social justice.

HISTORY

 

A group of young people gathered in Havana's Regla municipality and were determined to undermine the authority of Fulgencio Batista, who had established his dictatorship in a military coup. They decided to carry out sabotage actions targeting factories, stores, homes, cars, and trucks belonging to the government and its collaborators, and to hang symbols and flags of the July 26th movement throughout the town. The most striking of these actions was the theft of the Virgin of Regla statue from the church on the eve of the parade. This final action was planned on September 5, 1958, and was carried out on the same day. By targeting the annual celebrations held on September 8th in honor of the black Virgin of Regla, patron saint of Havana Bay they aimed was to the public that this was not a time for celebration, given the country's bloody regime.

After stealing the statue, the rebels stopped at José Lorenzo Díaz's house to change the cars. After a long journey, they hid the Virgin in a house under construction in Víbora Park, in current Arroyo Naranjo.

This action caused a great repercussion, and the festivals and processions dedicated to the Virgin of Regla on September 8 were canceled.

 

The execution of the informant Leonardo Figueroa del Pino (Tuto) on August 29, and the execution of another informant of the Batista's police, Manolo Sosa (the Watchmaker), by rebels on September 11th further fueled the anger of the regime's hitmen and sparked a relentless manhunt. Among those captured by Batista's forces, Popeye, who broke down under threats, reported that those wanted were hiding in a house in the Juanelo neighborhood.

There were indeed four young people (Alberto Álvarez Díaz, Leonardo Valdés, Onelio Dampiel Rodriguez, Reynaldo Cruz Romeu) were hiding in the Juanelo neighborhood (today part of San Miguel del Padrón), along with Lydia Doce Sánchez and Clodomira Acosta Ferrales, two brave women who had arrived from eastern Cuba on one of the many missions entrusted to them by the rebel leadership.

 

On  September 12th they heard a knock at the door and Popeye announced his arrival. When the door opened, the gang, led by Ventura and Carratalá, shot the boys, the oldest 23 years old, without any question.

The heinous attack took place at 16:15 at the building marked number 217 on Rita Street in the Juanelo neighborhood, now part of the San Miguel del Padrón municipality.

The two women were thrown into the army dungeon. Unable to extract a single word despite intense torture, they were killed and thrown into the sea. As sandbags were tied at their bodies, they disappeared in the depths of the Havana Bay. According to some, one of the women was killed on September 15 and the other on September 17. Their bodies were never found.

 

The bodies of the killed boys were buried in Regla Cemetery under strict security measures to prevent public reaction.

 

MONUMENT

 

The monument, facing the sea and visible to those who disembark from the traditional passenger boat, indicates to the visitor that they have arrived in a land of patriotic traditions.

 

The statue depicts, like a frozen film strip, the bodies of the young men shot by Batista's executioners as they fall to the ground. The holes left by the bullets in those bodies are, in fact, a source of even greater sorrow in the public's heart.

 

It bears the names of six men murdered on September 12, 1958. It's odd that the women's names are not included on the monument, as their bodies have not been recovered. Other plaques also commemorate Bernardino García Santos, Alberto Fernández Monzón, Leonardo Valdés Suárez, and Julio A. García Rodríguez, residents of Regla who were killed in other clandestine operations.

 

Next to the sculptural motif, a monumental stone stands, on which appears a bronze plaque with the inscription: “From the people of Regla to its martyrs.”