Relic Helps Cuba-Costa Rica Relations

Santiago de Cuba - The handing over to Cuba of a revolver belonging to Antonio Maceo, held by a Costa Rican family, will improve relations between both countries, said Costa Rica Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Roverssi on Thursday.

The visiting Costa Rican diplomat conveyed President Laura Chinchilla's warm greetings to the Cuban people and the wish that this gesture will help ties between the two nations by placing the reasons that unite Cuba and Costa Rica over their differences.

Minister of Environment, Energy and Communications Rene Castro Salazar, a member of the family that looked after the relic for over a century, said it was not a donation, but a return to its legitimate owners and to the hometown of the Lieut. Gen. of the Liberation Army.

He said the revolver fell into the hands of his great-grandfather, who was a Deputy Chief of National Police, after a clash between Spanish troops and Cuban patriots led by Maceo, who was wounded in the back and refrained from shooting back to prevent a political conflict in Costa Rica.

Castro said this closes a historical cycle in the deep roots joining the two peoples, in a circumstance marked by legend.

Cuban Culture Minister Rafael Bernal highlighted the symbolism of this gesture on the 134th anniversary of the Protest of Baragua, a glorious page of revolutionary intransigence led by Antonio Maceo, also known as the Bronze Titan, who found hospitality, admiration and respect in Costa Rica.

At the end of the ceremony, there was a presentation of the book "El Codigo de Maceo, el General Antonio en America Latina" (Maceo's Code, Gen. Antonio in Latin America) by historian Arnaldo Vargas Araya, an expert in the life and work of the Cuban hero, also a member of the visiting Costa Rican delegation who travelled to Santiago de Cuba.