Santo Domingo.- A group of gray-haired constitutionalists and comrades of “the Colonel of April” Francisco Alberto Caamaño gathered at 5:30pm in the front of Las Mercedes Church, where several children played handball under a cloudy afternoon, oblivious to the fateful date.
The mass convened to give thanks for the glory personified by Caamaño, assassinated 39 years ago after being captured in the southern Central Mountains, also served to note that his death came on orders from then president Joaquin Balaguer.
His death came after years of struggle to restore the mandate of democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, overthrown by a U.S. backed coup in September 1963, and unleashed the Revolution of 1965.
Caamaño’s cousin and fellow guerrilla Claudio Caamaño, who arrived in military garb, affirmed that despite what many think, the Colonel had “the greatest feelings of love for the Dominican Republic.”
The mass reunited old friends of Caamaño, his relatives and still bearded former revolutionaries, who still gaze, wearied by time, at the flame that once was the revolt for their nation.