Evelio Capote, Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba, Passed Away

October 16, 2019

Evelio Capote Castillo, Hero of Labor of the Republic of Cuba, died this Tuesday in Ciego de Ávila, at the age of 87, as a result of an acute myocardial infarction, after 11 days hospitalized at the provincial hospital Antonio Luaces Iraola.

Capote, a native of Bayamo, in the province of Granma, was part of the July 26 revolutionary movement and was one of the rebels of the Third Eastern Front, which entered the Hero City of Santiago de Cuba when the Revolution triumphed on January 1, 1959.

Based in Ciego de Ávila and serving as director of a construction contingent, which later took the name El Vaquerito, in honor of Roberto Rodríguez, captain of the Rebel Army, Capote received the task, in March 1987, of building a road over the water to Cayo Coco, one of the islets of Jardines del Rey, in the northern part of Avileño territory.

In statements to the ACN in 2016, Evelio, with a smile on his lips, commented that he considered that mission to be crazy, because throwing stones in a place where the view was endless and you couldn't see the end with only six KP-3s, three Kamaz trucks and one loader, was extremely difficult, but when they told him that Commander in Chief Fidel Castro had given the mission, he changed his position and carried it out.

Capote supported Fidel's idea of connecting through the cays in the northern part the provinces of Camagüey and Villa Clara, with Ciego de Ávila in the middle, since he considered that for the good of the Cuban economy it was convenient to exploit, in an orderly manner and with respect for the environment, almost 400 square kilometers of coral reefs, beautiful beaches and clear waters in Sabana-Camagüey.

Alina Morales Ramos, wife of Evelio, said that by the deceased's own will his body will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered by his family members this Wednesday in the first 300 meters of the embankment that he helped build from Isla de Turiaguanó to Cayo Coco, just where there is a sign with a phrase from the Commander: "Here you have to throw stones, without looking ahead".