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Doctor Juan Fermín Figueroa y Rivero was standing in the office of the Secretary waiting for the minutes of his inauguration as Local Health Chief in Cienfuegos to be finished, when a couple of shots rang out in the room itself and the doctor fell dying in the arms of reporter Eliso Cruces, who was taking notes of the failed ceremony.
Despite the small caliber of the weapon, a bullet that penetrated the upper lip region and exited at the back of the neck caused a fatal wound. From the scene of the crime, Paseo de Arango corner with San Fernando, he was transferred to the Emergency Hospital (current headquarters of ETECSA), but he arrived in a comatose state on the operating table and his colleagues could do nothing.
Figueroa, born in Santa Isabel de las Lajas 53 years earlier, had been aspiring to the position for at least 15 years, but he did not even have time to sign it that Thursday morning, March 8, 1934.
A resolution of the President of the Republic, Colonel Carlos Mendieta Montefur, dated March 2 decreed the dismissal of Dr. Osvaldo Morales Patiño from the position of Local Chief of Health, while appointing as his replacement the person who would be assassinated in the attempt to enforce the order issued in the Palace.
The dismissed official, who had been managing the city’s health affairs since the turbulent days of late August of last year, was accused of, among other offenses, having filled most of the entity’s positions with his political friends.
After two attempts, on Tuesday and Wednesday, to peacefully occupy the office to which he had been appointed, Juan Fermín showed up at the public building on Thursday morning, with the firm intention of validating the presidential decision. He was accompanied by Gabriel Díaz Ojeda, mediator in the dispute due to his status as a friend of the dismissed president and his successor, and the notary Gustavo Iglesias, in charge of legitimizing the taking of possession in writing.
The day was marked by unbridled spirits. Those who would lose their jobs with the assumption of the new official were determined to prevent the change of administration. Among the public who cordoned off the building there were those who threatened to enter the headquarters by force. In such circumstances it was necessary to call the nearby Naval Station of Cayo Loco, from where they confirmed the dispatch of 20 sailors.
Although Morales Patiño was absent, as he remained at his home on Castillo Street, the legal proceedings were moving slowly. Juan Fermín dictated telegrams to be sent to the President of the Republic, the Secretary of Health and Welfare and the Director of Health. He requested a long distance call to Havana with the latter, Dr. Félix Loriet. Although the lawyer Iglesias was still fine-tuning the last details of the evidentiary record, he was quick to announce to his superior that he was now the Head of Health in Cienfuegos.
The broth of political stubbornness was seasoned with several punches and plenty of insults in the narrow setting of the secretariat. Someone shouted a long live Mendieta and another verbally condemned the late Machadato. In the midst of the uproar, Figueroa managed to dodge a straight shot to the chin, but not the small-caliber bullet with heavy lethal power. Among the witnesses to the murder was fifteen-year-old Gastón Figueroa, orphaned from that moment on.
As investigating judge of case number 458 of 1934, Dr. Marcelino Raggi went to the hospital on Cuartel and Santa Cruz streets to begin the proceedings, and Navy Captain Arsenio Arce ordered the military takeover of the Health Department.
The deceased’s residence, Arguelles number 185, between Prado and Gacel, served as the funeral home. The floral tribute was so large that it was necessary to open the portals of the Minerva Society and the Asilo de la Virtud Masonic Lodge to display the offerings.
Those arrested as suspects of the murder that brought to mind the local press those of Enrique Villuendas (1905) and Florencio Guerra (1917) were Abelardo Rodríguez del Rey and Milagros Pedraja Cano, both inspectors of the office in dispute, the employee Carlos Cepero Díaz, the mechanic Wenceslao Tartabull, the bricklayer Miguel Villa and, of course, Dr. Morales Patiño.
Villa was released after testifying and his close friendship with the doctor who was shot was proven. The other five were tried without bail, although they denied the charges, including planning Figueroa’s death.
As happened on other occasions of a similar nature, as the days went by the case began to lose relevance in the local press until it almost completely disappeared.
We know that on June 6 the accused were transferred to the provincial prison in Santa Clara. By then there were only three of them: Rodríguez del Rey, Pedraja and Cepero.
October 6th The Correspondence published a short story on the last page entitled “The murder of Dr. Figueroa.” It reported the acquittal of the last two by the Court of Las Villas, “after proving their absolute innocence.”
Abelardo Rodríguez del Rey, whom police officer Atilano Delgado had seen fleeing the crime scene with a revolver in his hand, no longer had any companions in crime. In his cell in Santa Clara he was perhaps reviewing the events of Thursday, March 8. Among them was the moment of his arrest by the Municipal corporal Evaristo Nodal, while he was trying to hide in the La Principal furrier’s shop, and he implored the police officer: “Don’t kill me, I’m a revolutionary like you.”
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