The desecration of the statue of Cuba's National Hero, José Martí, by U.S. Marines in Central Park is a precursor, 77 years ago, to the same shameful and unpatriotic act committed in later years by Cuban mercenaries paid by the United States to offend the memory of the Apostle.
On March 11, 1949, a group of U.S. Marines who had arrived in Havana harbor aboard the aircraft carrier Palau, the minesweepers Rodman, Hobson, and Jeffers, and the tugboat Papago invaded bars and brothels in Old Havana and Central Havana, starting fights and making offensive advances toward the women they encountered.
Around nine o'clock at night, a group of crew members from the minesweeper Rodman wandered, swaying drunkenly and behaving rudely, along the Paseo del Prado. Upon reaching Central Park, they climbed the statue of José Martí in a disrespectful race to the top, amidst the cheers of the gang of marines accompanying them.
The Havana residents who frequented the park couldn't believe what they were seeing and reacted quickly, rushing to defend the statue of the Apostle. A sailor sitting on the head had his foot propped up against the sculpture's arm, and they feared he would pull it down.
Everyone shouted indignantly and forcefully: "Get out! Get out!" At that moment, photographer Fernando Chaviano happened to be passing by and recorded the affront with the last two plates he had left. The following day, the United States Embassy offered him two thousand dollars for the photos, unsuccessfully attempting to destroy the photographic evidence.
The commotion in the center of the park drew the attention of passersby and students from the Havana Institute who were leaving class at that moment. They all joined in reprimanding the marines, and tempers flared.
The sailor perched atop the statue's head was pelted with all sorts of projectiles, from stones to bottles, and had to climb down to join his comrades who were trying to escape the encirclement of an indignant crowd. The crowd hurled insults and punches in response to the offense, and neither the police nor other marines were able to free the perpetrators, who were taken to a nearby police station.
The magnitude of the affront, the photographs published on the front page of the newspapers the following day, and the detention of three marines in a cell at the police station mobilized the people of Havana, who gathered in front of the station demanding justice and punishment. But it also mobilized the government at the time, the commanders of the units to which the marines belonged, and the U.S. embassy in an attempt to free them and quell the scandal.
On March 12, the then-leaders of the FEU (Federation of University Students), Fidel Castro, Alfredo Guevara, Lionel Soto, and Baudilio Castellanos, along with students and other citizens, gathered in the Plaza de Armas in front of the U.S. Embassy to protest this outrage and demand that those responsible be tried in Cuban courts. Once again, the police attacked the demonstrators, inflicting severe injuries on Baudilio and other students.
The U.S. flotilla departed Havana on March 13. A U.S. court-martial sentenced only one marine to 15 days in the Rodman prison cells out of all those who participated in the grotesque spectacle. The American Ambassador tried to downplay the incident by placing a floral offering at Martí's statue and offered apologies, but that did not erase the offense that the Cuban people still remember with indignation to this day.