Archimedes Colina Antunez. A leading Cuban revolutionary in the fights for total independence. He became a member of the 26th of July Movement and was killed in battle against Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorial forces. A prominent son of Mabay, he is commemorated every day in the town for his outstanding revolutionary path and courage.
He was born on February 6, 1935, at the Mabay Sugar Mill, Bayamo, located in the Granma province.
The essence of defiance appeared quite early in his adolescence, and from a tender age, he resisted the tyrannical system of that era. In late 1956, he started conspiring against the oppression, gathering arms for the revolutionaries active in the plains, and soon became part of the 26th of July Movement.
After the unsuccessful general strike on April 9, 1958, when government oppression intensified in Mabay, the agricultural laborers of the Mabay sugar mill initiated their strike. The dictatorship’s forces chased them to compel their return to work, confiscating numerous trucks except for Arquímides’s, the driver’s, who chose to destroy it by driving it into a tree at the barracks’ entrance.
Following these occurrences, he and his companions chose to organize a rebellion lasting three months.
After a while, he and his friends set out for the Sierra Maestra mountains, and in early August they connected in the pine woods of Morales, located in what is now the municipality of Guisa in Granma province.
There, they encountered the forces of Captain Rogoberto Ramírez. They came unarmed and without provisions, thereby enlisting in the Rebel Army. A few days later, at Arquímides’s insistence, he received permission to descend into the city to acquire weapons.
On the afternoon of October 3rd, a liaison officer arrived at my fortified position and told me that Lieutenant Nelson Castillo and two other comrades who had been with Colina were taken to the camp, but Colina himself was absent. They claimed a deceased rebel’s body was displayed in a jeep, tied with barbed wire, as “Maracaibo Oriental” was sung. My intuition was validated; it was Arquímides Colina. I promptly requested the column commander to allow me to return to the camp to apprehend Lieutenant Nelson for defying orders and to look into what occurred. Eventually, it was verified that it was Colina.
I couldn’t interview Lieutenant Nelson as he had already departed from the camp.
Eventually, I found out the specifics about when they seized the truck. Colina requested the San Cristóbal from Nelson, and Nelson provided it to him. Another colleague was behind the wheel. They exited the primary road and traveled through an area named “El Palmito.” The truck couldn’t proceed any further, and the other comrade remarked, “Colina, get out and let’s move.”
However, a helicopter had already found them and was shooting. Colina said, “You go, I’ll take care of the retreat,” and began shooting at the helicopter, engaging it and successfully injuring a crew member. He sustained a leg injury as well.
The military succeeded in encircling him and commenced shooting at him and the helicopter. The circumstances were dire. He persisted in battling the opposing forces and succeeded in causing some losses to the regime’s military.