Written by Arelys García Updated by Arelys García
May 1999: Before the Civil and Administrative Chamber of the Provincial People’s Court of Havana, the heartfelt testimony of Evelia Domenech, mother of Manuel Ascunce, a young man murdered along with his student, the farmer Pedro Lantigua, on November 26, 1961, by terrorist groups operating in the Escambray Mountains.
Evelia’s octogenarian voice is poignant: “I have suffered the greatest loss a mother can experience: the loss of her son (…). They mutilated his body, a 16-year-old boy. I am not alone, but thousands of mothers with the claws of the empire sunk deep in our hearts (…), they are unforgivable.”
Evelia Domenech was among the 193 witnesses who, along with documents declassified by the U.S. government itself, photographs, film footage, and expert reports from meticulous investigations, provided irrefutable evidence for the Cuban people’s lawsuit against the United States government for human damages. This lawsuit, filed on May 31, 1999, was supported by the vast majority of the Cuban people, represented by their main mass and social organizations.
In this lawsuit, the Provincial People’s Court of Havana City ruled that the aggressor government of the United States should compensate the Cuban people with a single payment of 181.1 billion U.S. dollars; however, as the lawyers in charge of the legal proceedings argued, pain and tears are priceless.
A long list of events had plunged Cuba into mourning by that date. Banditry within the country left 549 dead and 200 people disabled. The mercenary attack at Playa Girón resulted in 176 deaths, more than 300 wounded, and 50 disabled. Added to this were the deaths caused by the deliberate introduction of the dengue (hemorrhagic) virus to the island. Likewise, the memory of the mid-air bombing of the Cubana de Aviación plane, in which 73 people were killed, 57 of them Cubans, remains fresh in Cuba’s mind.
Another countless events were denounced during those 12 days, during which the voices of the victims of so much criminality orchestrated and financed by the United States against Cuba were heard with sorrow. Even now, before the Civil and Administrative Chamber of the People’s Provincial Court of Havana, the heartfelt testimony of Evelia Domenech, mother of Manuel Ascunce, the boy with the lantern and primer murdered for teaching reading and writing, still resonates.
“I am not alone, but thousands of mothers with the claws of the empire sunk deep in our hearts,” Evelia said then, and it still hurts to hear her.
[ SOURCE: AGENCIA CUBANA DE NOTICIAS ]
