Niceto Pérez García

Niceto Pérez was born on a small farm in San Antonio de los Baños, currently in the province of Artemisa, and his family suffered, like that of other peasants of that time, harsh hardships in the search for sustenance.

Accompanied by his relatives, Niceto moved at the beginning of the 1920s to the María Luisa farm, located in El Vínculo, a place situated to the southwest of the current province of Guantánamo. In that area, Niceto Pérez fought the continual eviction attempts by landowner Lino Mancebo together with his fellow farmers, obstructing Mancebo's expansionist ambitions.

On April 24, 1944, the Peasant Federation of Oriente denounced to the Minister of Agriculture a new threat of eviction against the 128 peasant families in the area, and exposed that the agricultural and industrial company Maca SA had sent its men to fence off the farmers' properties in order to seize them.

Niceto Pérez, an active member of the Peasant Association and staunch opponent of all types of abuse, fought once again against the mistreatment of rural residents, who kept their parcels. Niceto Pérez, sole supporter of a large family, endured without wavering in his ideas all types of intimidation from the Rural Guard and the arrogant landowners.

On May 17, 1946, the rural guards went looking for Niceto, who was working on his small farm in the company of two of his sons. There, one of the assassins fired and took his life.

The crime committed against the farmer did not intimidate his companions, but instead ignited the indignation of the peasant masses. The capital of Guantánamo welcomed the rural and city workers who united in a demonstration of mourning and revulsion at the murder of Niceto Pérez, who would be from that moment on and forever the hero of Cuban peasantry.

Source: Radio Cadena Agramonte