By Magda Rosales  

“ !long live the peace but with the rifles, cannons and tanks  that we have in position for the combat!”, sentenced Raul Castro Ruz, today  General of the Army, In the morning of the first martyr of the Frontier Brigade Antonio Maceo.

It was July 19th of the year 1964 when, four bullets were shot from the Yankee Naval Base, and cowardly silenced the life of a soldier in the post 44.

Great importance have  those words today when the American government has put into practice for almost 50 years, the criminal blockade against Cuba  trying  to surrender us by hungry,  and keeping  five of our heroes in prison  calling them terrorists while  increasing their campaign against our country.  

Since the first hours of that tragic day, the American post prepared their guns and pointed our combatants. In one of such aggressions they killed a soldier and hurt another one -Hector Pupo Sucarno- and freely violated the most elemental international rights.

The objective is clear. They are trying to find a pretext to invade Cuba. But the soldiers keep like roots in the front line.

Ramon Lopez Peña was born on December 15th 1946, in Puerto Padre, today Las Tunas province, since very young he worked  the land, and that is why he could only finish 4th grade.

When he was only 15 he entered the Revolutionary National Militia (MNR), his behavior here and in the 50 division and his roll in the struggle against bandits, gave him a relevant place in the Frontier Brigade. In the front he had a decisive participation in the political and military preparation, and the cultural development of the new soldiers.
 Daddy! This is of freedom or death!  He tells his father when this one asked him to take good care of himself.

Courage and temper shows his mother Eunomia in the funeral, the same that wrote in the agenda of a Prensa Latina’s journalist: “I am a Cuban mother whose son has been murder by the Yankees, I ask other mothers to keep fighting, not to give up, and not to show our tears to the enemy in a painful moment like this one. Let us instead to take the place of the fallen child, and give our lives for the Revolution if necessary”. She wore military clothes in the funeral to honor his son.

In the ceremony, the Second Secretary of the Communist Party, delivered Ramon Lopez’s father   the card that identified his son as member of the Youth Communist Party (UJC),  as symbol of the  brave force that in the frontier defended and defends our  sovereignty.

The American government pretended to cover the crime, twisting the events, but the Cuban authorities gave a detailed and accurate part of the happenings.

Ramon was the first crime committed by the enemy in the frontier but it was not the last one for sure. Less than two years ago (May 21st 1966) a new crime took place: The soldier Luis Ramirez Lopez, another symbol of the country.