Centenary of a genocide in Cuba. Weyler's “ reconcentration ”, Jean Laïlle
\chapter{Centenary of a genocide in Cuba. Weyler's “ reconcentration ”}
\chapterauthor{Jean LAÏLLE}
“”
Jean LAÏLLE
A black book of capitalism in Latin America, if it were to be exhaustive, should be a documentalist work bringing together the historical works on the iron and fire penetration of capitalism triumphant without sharing from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego.
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ How to make a choice between the southern cone and the confines of the central i
Fruitières penetrated by the iron of the modern railway flibuste for the interests of the United Fruit, from Colombia to Guatemala?
How can we talk about the “Green Pope” better than Miguel Angel Asturias, or banana strikes like Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
CHow do you treat the exploitation of Brazilian land as intensely as Jorge Amado in his novels?
How do you treat the exploitation of Brazilian land as intensely as Jorge Amado in his novels?
Or better appreciate the slogan “Land and Freedom” than with the Mexican frescoes of Siqueiros?
Once written, this black book will have the detractors of the eternal coalition of liberals and conservatives to defend the civilizing virtues as did before them the Spaniards rejecting under the name of “black legend” the slightest criticism of their American empire evangelized by sword and fire.
@ -32,11 +32,8 @@ For this purpose, a hundred years ago it suffered a veritable holocaust in conce
We therefore hold with Cuba the two ends of a black book that opened in 1492 and has not yet closed, since this people has refused for forty years “to submit to the injunctions and the empire of the greatest economic, political and military power in history”.
Why not flip through one of those dark pages of capitalism in Latin America, written by capitalism itself exactly a hundred years ago, when it was taking off in Cuba, the last shred of this empire that five hundred years during the Spanish crown exploited?
At the moment when the powerful neighbor to the north is ready to pick this ripe fruit, humiliated Spain clings to it shamefully and it is, under the orders of Captain General Don Valeriano Weyler, the “reconcentration”, deportation of a people in its own land, from 1896 to 1898 (340).
340 The Spanish word “reconcentration” is deliberately retained here instead of “regroupment”, which does not exactly render the concentration camp will of the Spanish colonial power.
It was therefore arbitrarily translated under the spelling “reconcentration”, used in the title.
At the moment when the powerful neighbor to the north is ready to pick this ripe fruit, humiliated Spain clings to it shamefully and it is, under the orders of Captain General Don Valeriano Weyler, the “reconcentration”, deportation of a people in its own land, from 1896 to 1898 \footnote{The Spanish word “reconcentration” is deliberately retained here instead of “regroupment”, which does not exactly render the concentration camp will of the Spanish colonial power.
It was therefore arbitrarily translated under the spelling “reconcentration”, used in the title.}.
\section{A colony on hold}
@ -66,7 +63,7 @@ Each having taken his commission, the locomotives and rails finally arrived from
The mills having become “sugar plants”.
These real factories receive the cane from more and more distant cuts and their range of action continues to increase, to the point of encompassing the Cuban East still ignored by cane planters.
All that remained for the great sugar interests linked to the United States was to buy the lines so that the railway attached to the sugar “latifundium” was the vector of the Yankee saccharocracy* covering the whole island under the aegis of the Spanish colonial power.
All that remained for the great sugar interests linked to the United States was to buy the lines so that the railway attached to the sugar “latifundium” was the vector of the Yankee saccharocracy\rfootnote{saccharocracy is some neologism from saccharosis, sugar, and -cracy rule. Roughly means empire of sugar} covering the whole island under the aegis of the Spanish colonial power.
Let us wait patiently until the end of the century to see it confiscated for the benefit of North American imperialism.
Cornelius Van Horne, builder of the “Canadian-Pacific”, whose father had conquered sugar by iron, was one of those who succeeded so that at his death he could say:
“When I think of everything I could do, I'd like to live 500 years... ”.
@ -91,7 +88,8 @@ Fifteen years later, the most prominent wrestlers inspired by José Marti, under
Cuba of the Spanish metropolitan yoke. By 1895, the war was spreading from east to west, taking on proportions out of all proportion to the previous conflict.
José Marti was killed while attempting to intercept a Spanish column of 600 cavalry on 19 May 1895.
This setback increased tenfold the forces of the patriots under the orders of Maximo Gomez and Antonio Maceo who, at the end of 1895, invaded the Cuban West entering the opulent region of Matanzas where they burned the plantations, preventing the harvest of that year and paralyzing almost entirely the sugar industry for lack of raw materials.
From 1,034,794 metric tons in 1895, the tonnage of “Zafra” fell to 232,068 in 1896, even less in 1897, due to the military action of the “mambises (341)”, which forced the colonial troops to confine themselves to the fortified garrisons.
From 1,034,794 metric tons in 1895, the tonnage of “Zafra” fell to 232,068 in 1896, even less in 1897, due to the military action of the “mambises \footnote{“Mambi” in the plural “mambises”: guerrillas of patriotic spanish friendly battles since the Ten Years' War (1868-1878).
Perhaps named after a black officer, Juan Ethninius Mamby, a deserter from the Spanish army. Unless it's a pre-Columbian Cuban word, the rebel with the cacique.}”, which forced the colonial troops to confine themselves to the fortified garrisons.
At the same time, the price of sugar fell by half while the steam engine, mechanizing the production and production of sugar, had mobilized enormous capital to replace that of the blacks released in 1886.
Hence the huge Yankee investments replacing those of the English bankers and
Spanish shareholders who see their colonial sovereignty wavering.
@ -108,7 +106,9 @@ Cane trains were preceded by exploratory locomotives, forts were built at each b
The illustrated newspapers of Madrid published reports with engravings of convoys destroyed by the sabotage of the wooden bridges of the railway of the time.
Nothing helped, except the even more marked desire of sugar traders and entrepreneurs to protect themselves behind Spanish bayonets.
An officer known as the “Iron Man” who had already distinguished himself in the “Ten Years' War” (1868-1878) was remembered for his cruelty against the civilian population and was appointed Captain-General of Cuba, replacing Martinez Campos.
It was Don Valerian Weyler (342), known for his repressive imagination.
It was Don Valerian Weyler \footnote{Surname which has nothing Spanish and dates back to the mercenaries of the Walloon darde of the Bourbons of Spain.
Due to a lack of volunteers, Swiss, Irish and even Germans were added, which made the case of the great-grandfather Weyler, of Rhine origin.
The general, his great-grandson, was born in Palma de Mallorca to a military doctor on September 17, 1837, claiming this catalan island origin.}, known for his repressive imagination.
Recognizing that this war was different from the previous one, Martinez Campos himself had proposed emptying the water from the jar to catch the fish:
a leader as experienced as Weyler was able, he said, to apply this measure of “reconcentration,” which he found repugnant to do on his own.
It had already been used, albeit on a smaller scale during the “Guerra Grande”, but never exceeded the figure of 40,000 civilians regrouped after being forced to abandon their villages.
@ -119,17 +119,7 @@ To the population were added cattle.
“Hundreds of thousands of people were gathered.
In the affair of a few days, the localities with garrisons were transformed into huge prisons for the elderly, women and children without the slightest means of subsistence.
After having gathered them in this way, the Spanish troops had carte blanche to raze everything, burn the houses, destroy the fields and sacrifice the animals that they could not remove from the supply needs of the liberation army,”
explains Colonel Raul Izquierdo Canoso, who has just published a study entitled “Reconcentration” published recently. (343)
341 “Mambi” in the plural “mambises”: guerrillas of patriotic spanish friendly battles since the Ten Years' War (1868-1878).
Perhaps named after a black officer, Juan Ethninius Mamby, a deserter from the Spanish army. Unless it's a pre-Columbian Cuban word, the rebel with the cacique.
342 Surname which has nothing Spanish and dates back to the mercenaries of the Walloon darde of the Bourbons of Spain.
Due to a lack of volunteers, Swiss, Irish and even Germans were added, which made the case of the great-grandfather Weyler, of Rhine origin.
The general, his great-grandson, was born in Palma de Mallorca to a military doctor on September 17, 1837, claiming this catalan island origin.
343 VIII International Book Fair in Havana, February 1998, PABEXPO.
explains Colonel Raul Izquierdo Canoso, who has just published a study entitled “Reconcentration” published recently. \footnote{VIII International Book Fair in Havana, February 1998, PABEXPO.}
\section{A real genocide}
@ -178,7 +168,7 @@ One day our house fills up with a large family of "reconcentrated" – they did
emigration was appalling, only those who did not have the opportunity to flee remained...
at home, the most opulent house and the best stocked expense of Matanzas, we had resorted to the soup of these purslanes that grow even on the sidewalks and my mother had excellently patched them up as if they were exquisite ravioli ... .
Every day the newspapers published the warrior exploits of the Spaniards who, at every encounter with the rebels, always pulverized them.
In conclusion: nothing new on our side. I lived these days like a century... I lost weight by an arroba (344).”
In conclusion: nothing new on our side. I lived these days like a century... I lost weight by an arroba \footnote{1,5 kilograms, old castillan measure unit. }.”
These memories were published in 1983 in Cuba when, the manuscript of Lola Maria having been found, it was possible to establish a selection of which here is another example:
“ (...) The smell, that smell that looked like nothing and that was that of “reconcentration”, was that which the climate spread like the disease proper to the corpses which, swollen like toads, spread it in the streets.
@ -192,9 +182,6 @@ But no or very few French people, perhaps out of gratitude to the Spanish author
More astonishing is the figure of 1758 North Americans reported in December 1897 among the death certificates identifying Germans, Mexicans and several other minority European or American nationalities, not to mention the mention “Africans” with no further precision
344 1,5 kilograms, old castillan measure unit.
\section{And the U.S. wins the bet}
@ -214,7 +201,7 @@ Present in the port of Havana since January 25, 1898, the armoured cruiser “Ma
“Everything is quiet here!” said press reporter Hearst from Havana to his boss, who replied: "Send pictures and I'll give war!"
The legal instrument that President McKinley obtained from Congress, the famous "Joint Resolution," made it clear that "the right of Cubans to be free" depended on "the ability granted to the President of the United States to have the resources necessary to intervene in the Cuban War of Independence and pacify the country.”
In their book, \emph{Chemins pour le sucre}(Paths for Sugar), Oscar Zanetti and Alejandro Garcia (345) add to the above:
In their book, \emph{Chemins pour le sucre}(Paths for Sugar), Oscar Zanetti and Alejandro Garcia \footnote{Caminos Para el Azucar, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, La Habana.} add to the above:
“The treacherous tactic of the U.S. military command of the island was to deny belligerence to the Cuban forces, relying separately on their various local leaders and, once the Spanish rout was acquired, to prohibit the entry of Cuban fighters into the main cities in order to prevent the Spanish army from capitulating to the patriots... (which) were excluded from the signing of the protocol ratifying the Spanish surrender.
Thus the sovereignty of the islands passed from the hands of Spanish colonialism to those of North American imperialism.
The Treaty of Paris, formally inspired by “humanitarian principles and high social and moral duties,” actually concealed the U.S. military occupation of Cuba for an indefinite time and the acquisition by the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean and pacific as spoils of war.”
@ -233,7 +220,7 @@ From there to consider that two of the greatest genocides of our time have a Cub
For his part, Colonel Raul Izquierdo Canosa, author of the book cited, told “Granma” on February 1, 1889:
“Maintaining such a high number of people in fortified places or areas under military control implied an increase in security measures in terms of means and men, although it is clear that the colonial authorities did not pay too much attention to the reception of the “reconcentrated”.
In my opinion, Weyler's initial mistake, in applying such a broad and complex measure, was that he had not previously created the necessary conditions for its realization.”*
In my opinion, Weyler's initial mistake, in applying such a broad and complex measure, was that he had not previously created the necessary conditions for its realization.”\rfootnote{Some quotation mark appear to be missing in this paragraph, i placed one where it was most likely supposed to be}
When they became aware of the problem they had created, the Spaniards adopted some measures such as the creation of cultivation areas on the outer lands of the fortified areas on January 1, 1897.
It was already too late for Weyler, who could not prevent the series of defeats that followed that year.
@ -242,13 +229,6 @@ He died in his bed in 1930, at the age of 92, not without having known one last
convicted of participating in a plot against the dictator Primo de Riviera, thus denying a zealous biographer who had also granted “the elegance of never having risen up in arms against the government”.
We were then in the middle of the Rif War, Spain had landed in Morocco as many soldiers as in Cuba 30 years earlier. Weyler was too old to offer his services...
345 Caminos Para el Azucar, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, La Habana.
Jean Laïlle
Jean Laïlle is a journalist at /eph{L'Humanité} and a specialist in rail transport problems for Latin America and Spain.
*saccharocracy is some neologism from saccharosis, sugar, and -cracy rule. Roughly means empire of sugar
\rauthor{Jean Laïlle}
*Some quotation mark appear to be missing in this paragraph, i placed one where it was most likely supposed to be
Jean Laïlle is a journalist at \emph{L'Humanité} and a specialist in rail transport problems for Latin America and Spain.
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