"The Protest of Baraguá,"
by Antonio Maceo,
issued on March 23, 1878

"To the Inhabitants of the Eastern Department:

Since the time of the unfortunate and base design which brought this Department a new policy in harmony with the total neglect of the Centers by the New York Junta, whose policy has been to separate us completely from the President and the Camagüey Junta, we have agreed with the leaders Flor Crombet, Belisario Grave de Peralta, Pedro Martínez Freire, Vicente García, José Maceo, Guillermo Moncada, and others not to enter into the peace agreement that the Central Department has made. We have had ten years of suffering and hardships without number; our army is strong, hardy, and experienced… Our policy is to free the slaves, because the era of the whip and of Spanish cynicism has come to an end, and we ought to form a new Republic assimilated with our sisters Santo Domingo and Haiti.

The great spirit of Washington, Lafayette and Bolívar, liberators of oppressed peoples, accompanies us, and is one with us, and we believe that we will accomplish our work of regeneration. Inhabitants of the Eastern Department, your Major General Maceo is counting on your cooperation."

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