On December 29, 1958, in the middle of the park of the town of Maffo, only two kilometers from Contramaestre, Lieutenant Antonio Regueira Luaces, chief of the troops of the dictatorship surrounded in the warehouses of the Banco de Fomento Agricola e Industrial, de Cuba (BANFAIC) refused to surrender.
The command of the Rebel Army, which surrounded the dictatorship’s garrison and fought the last battle in the south-central part of the Cuban Oriente, explained convincing arguments to the aforementioned officer. The immediate surrender was a necessity.
The Commander in Chief of the Rebel Army Fidel Castro Ruz asked the military officer Regueira Luaces about the vitality of his troops, in an attempt to persuade him of a possible bloodbath among Cubans, then unnecessary.
The officer answered that he still had resources left, to which Fidel replied: “… and when you run out, what are you going to do? …”, “…Well… surrender…” answered the military officer of Batista’s army.
The leader of the national insurrection suggested: “No, then you commit suicide together with your troops…”.
The discussion reached such a dimension that one of the rebel commanders present challenged him to take out the troops to fight in the open; such was the irritation at that useless resistance.
In this interview Lieutenant Regueira Luaces learned of the surrender of the square of Palma Soriano, which influenced him to change his attitude by committing himself to surrender the next day.
Maffo was already closer to his liberation.