The coastal community of Boca de Samá is a paradisiacal place, impressive for its beauty, to which one arrives overcoming about 70 kilometers towards the North of Holguín province, passing through Guardalavaca beach; and after a small height, the small village is shown, escorted by the wide sea, that goes into that piece of land belonging to the municipality of Banes.
The coastal community of Boca de Samá is a paradisiacal place, impressive for its beauty, to which one arrives overcoming about 70 kilometers towards the North of Holguín province, passing through Guardalavaca beach; and after a small height, the small village is shown, escorted by the wide sea, that goes into that piece of land belonging to the municipality of Banes.
But to the almost 70 inhabitants of the place, proud of the harmony, peacefulness, industriousness and love they share, it is impossible to forget the sad experience lived 50 years ago, when on October 12, 1971, terrorists of the anti-Cuban organization Alpha-66 broke into the place, killed two combatants of the Ministry of the Interior and injured four other people, two of whom were little girls, full of dreams and hopes.
Time has passed, and when I think of those hours of terror that our small fishing community lived through, it seems like a nightmare, but I cannot erase from my memory the point-blank shots fired at my fellow combatants Ramón Arturo Siam Portelles and Lidio Rivaflecha Galán, who were mortally wounded in the confrontation, during which I received five bullet impacts in my legs", commented to me, with sadness reflected in his face, the then combatant of the Border Guard Troops (TGF) Carlos (Chino) Escalante Gómez.
The act perpetrated against Boca de Samá was prepared and carried out by members of the terrorist organization Alpha-66, in compliance with the so-called 'Torriente Plan', for propaganda purposes and to raise millions of dollars, which caused serious disputes among the ambitious associates.
Chino Escalante is still saddened when he thinks of the loss of the young fighters Lidio and Ramon, 32 and 24 years old, respectively. He showed me the leg where he received the impacts of projectiles that could also have taken his life; and how the shots fired by the terrorists while they were retreating in haste to retake their two boats, wounded the neighbors of the place, Jesús Igarza Osorio and the little sisters Nancy (lost a foot) and Ángela Pavón, 15 and 13 years old, respectively, and whose father was an auxiliary of the TGF.
As part of that story that forever marked the people of Boca de Samá, Escalante, who was then head of the border post; now 76 years old, has become an excellent communicator, thanks to whose quality, visitors can obtain accurate and truthful information about what happened 50 years ago. He remembers many other details of the history of the place, such as that August 2nd, 1986, when he had a two-hour and 15-minute exchange with Army General Raúl Castro Ruz.
A small museum treasures all the information about the local history, and at the entrance of the farmhouse a monument against terrorism was built to symbolically commemorate what happened on October 12, 1971. On the subject, Escalante added the active participation of the villagers in the battle for the liberation of the Five Cuban anti-terrorists and the meetings held in the place with prestigious activists, international personalities and relatives of the Five.
While interacting with Escalante and visitors, we were approached by a local resident who works at the local history museum. His name is Jesús González Pérez, who at just seven years of age, lived through the aftermath of the terrorist attack that mourned the neighborhood and said: "Here we sleep with our eyes open, because since then we have learned to multiply our revolutionary vigilance so that criminal events like those will never be repeated.
In the context of the event 'We Have Memory, Solidarity against the blockade and State Terrorism', and as part of the preparations for the event that will take place this morning in the village, I accompanied Lt. Col. Idalberto Pérez Peña and Iván Fundora Ochoa, from the Detachment of the TGF North East; Jorge Luis Cruz Guerrero, officer of operational exploration of these troops; and Yurima Quevedo Rodríguez, from the Provincial Secretariat of the CDR.
During the commemoration, a Popular Rapid Response Detachment will be flagged off, in addition to the Mirando al Mar Detachment, which for years has been confronting various illegalities committed on the coast, including drug trafficking.
Escalante and Jesús are right, because Boca de Samá is a place that remains with its guard up, along with its mass organizations and the border post from which nothing escapes the combatants' gaze. And the families, how do they develop their lives, I asked Escalante, who said that there is a lot of unity and harmony in all senses, for which reason there has not been a single case of contagion of Covid-19 and the only thing they have not been able to overcome is the shortage of some material resources, starting with food.
But it has been proven that there is love even to share, said Belkis Yolanda Pérez González, who has shared 50 years of her life with Escalante, and even the events of October 12, 1971, because they had married the previous month. The fruit of that love are their three children, of which the two females have a degree in nursing.
It is October 12, 2021 and in Boca de Samá life goes on, without losing the memory because as José Martí said, ¨...it is in vain to ask memory to tear away from itself what outrages it¨. Reason enough to continue demanding, from all scenarios, the end of the blockade and State terrorism against Cuba.