“…If our enemy is great, our courage and determination to save the country and return to it clean of stains and embarrassment the dignity of its flag and the purity of its spirit are greater.”
Colonel Juan María Lora Fernández, constitutionalist leader
That December 19, 1965, former President Colonel Francisco Caamano Deno was in the city of Santiago along with another constitutionalist leader, Colonel Juan María Lora Fernández.
There was also Manuel Montes Arache, leader of the “Frogmen”, among other soldiers and combatants.
The reason? Pay tribute to Colonel Rafael Tomás Fernández Domínguez, ideologue of the movement that demanded the return of the professor Juan Bosch and respect for the constitution, and who had fallen seven months earlier in combat during Operation Lazo (the seizure of the National Palace), on May 19 of that year.
When the constitutionalist delegation was in the front esplanade of the hotel, it was 9:00 in the morning and suddenly a hail of bullets began to fall from all angles. They were soldiers from the opposing sector who were determined to conclude through arms what was supposed to have ended in September via agreement.
Immediately, the group of constitutionalists took refuge in the Hotel Matum and, from there, a tedious battle broke out that left several dead.
However, the most significant loss was that of Lora Fernández, who fell from the bullets of the National Army that had ambushed them.
The siege of the Hotel Matum lasted for hours, until representatives of international organizations were able to agree a ceasefire between the constitutionalists and the regular army.
Subsequently, Caamaño Deño, in a report that he addressed to the provisional president Héctor García Godoy Cáceres, dated December 21, 1965, the original of which rests in the Presidential Fund of the General Archive of the Nation, said that in the hotel at the time of the attack, there were between 800 and 1,000 people, including 18 US citizens.
The end of the battle for the Hotel Matum ended around 5:00 in the afternoon, when the constitutionalists were evacuated and transferred to the capital by helicopter.
commemorative acts
Foundations and organizations are expected to hold commemorative events tomorrow in honor of that historic day, which is considered (in practice) the last battle of the 1965 War.
