Francisco Aguero Velasco

One of the main leaders in the independence conspiracies that arose in Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe and Nuevitas in 1822 and 1823.

He was born in Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe, today Camagüey, in 1793.

He was one of the main leaders in the independence conspiracies that arose in Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1822 and Nuevitas in 1823 who participated in the conspiracy of the "Liga de la Cadena". Discovered by Spanish authorities, he fled to Philadelphia, United States of America in early 1824.

In 1825 he obtained an appointment as Sub Lieutenant of the Colombian Navy, in Cartagena de Indias. At the end of that year he went to Kingston, Jamaica, to organize an expedition together with independence patriots among whom was Andrés Manuel Sánchez Pérez with the purpose of preparing an armed uprising in Cuba, which would be supported by a planned Colombian invasion that El Libertador, Simón Bolívar, would order to free Cuba from Spain.

He departed from Montego Bay, Jamaica, on January 11, 1826, in the English sloop Maryland carrying the expedition that he had previously organized. He disembarked near Santa Cruz del Sur on January 20, and they were reported to the mayor of that city. In the early morning hours of that day they were arrested in their hideout at the sugar plantation "San José de Las Cuavas," located in the vicinity of the city of Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe (today Camagüey), while he was carrying out his mission with the revolutionary elements of that city, they were taken prisoner, tried, and sentenced to death.

On March 16, 1826, they were hanged together with Manuel Andrés Sánchez in the Plaza de Armas of Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe. Although this event was actually a clandestine infiltration, many historians have considered it as the first expedition of the independence struggles. Francisco Agüero had just turned 33 years old and his companion Manuel Andrés Sánchez was only 21.

From an unknown author exists this posthumous tribute to the memory of Francisco Agüero Velazco (Frasquito) and Manuel Andrés Sánchez Pérez:

Hanging from a vile gallows

on the sixteenth day of March

of eighteen twenty-six

Sánchez and Agüero died.

The entire people distressed

shed bitter tears

when they saw executed

the verdict handed down by the Court

in the case of infidelity

brought against them.

Source: Ecured