At the height of December 25, 1958, the command of the Batista tyranny in Cuba, was stubborn in a useless resistance to the attacks of the Liberation Army on its positions in the town of Maffo and the city of Palma Soriano. There was no longer any doubt that the war of national liberation was being decided in eastern Cuba.
On that day when Christmas is celebrated all over the world, the rebel command called a second truce with the soldiers of the dictatorship and met with Lieutenant Antonio Regueira Luaces, who was leading the troops of the dictatorship surrounded in the warehouses of the Bank of Agricultural and Industrial Development of Cuba (BANFAIC) in Maffo, 890 kilometers from Havana.
The rebels offered the military command the possibility that the encircled soldiers would surrender and join the revolutionary ranks while keeping their ranks. The officers would be authorized to keep their small arms.
Among the conditions proposed in exchange by the Rebel Army command were: the surrender of long arms and that the military police and the members of the paramilitary group called “Tigers of Mansferrer” be detained until their situation was clarified before the revolutionary justice system.
The army of the tyranny did not accept the last two points in an evident attempt to protect the murderers in the BANFAIC ships. They even presented an unworthy proposal to allow the besieged to retreat with their weapons to the city of Bayamo.
On this day, December 25, 1958, the soldiers of the tyranny violated the truce and fired mortar shots against the rebel radio positions south of the BANFAIC ships, near the blacksmith shop of Esteban Naranjo “Tevón”. As a result of the attack, revolutionary fighters Humberto Hechavarría and Carlos Pechavarría were killed. Hechavarría and Carlos Peneque died as a result of the attack.
Orestes Valera, one of the announcers of Radio Rebelde in the Sierra Maestra, narrated the painful incident as follows:
“We were sitting Carlos (Paneque) and I in front of Sardina’s store and a mortar fell in the middle of the street, we turned our faces at the same time and a fragment was embedded in Carlos’ neck (…).
He was taken to the Luzon house where he was given first aid and then to the Bijagual Hospital where he died (…).
The death of the rebel fighter Carlos Paneque caused a deep commotion among his comrades and especially among those who worked with him in Radio Rebelde. Jorge Enrique Mendoza, radio broadcaster in the Sierra Maestra, noted about Paneque’s personality:
“There are images that remain forever in our minds. I will never forget the smile and the expression of joy and happy companionship on Carlos Paneque’s face, who with his immense joy made us smile so many times”.
Violeta Casals, announcer of the Rebel Army radio station, also expressed her grief at the death of the rebel fighter:
“The day Carlos Paneque died from a mortar shot, in our camp we had received a photo of his daughter who was only a few months old. Paneque talked to us about her, his wife, his mother and siblings. He was anxiously waiting for her (…) we knew of his great happiness to be able to see his beloved daughter (…) but Paneque did not return”.
