Law of Flight

In Havana last week the Porra, President Machado's strong arm squad, made a tactical mistake which became the sensation of the Spanish speaking world. One night the body of an obscure student, Mariano Gonzalez Gutierrez, was found shot dead, sprawled on its face near a warehouse which the police claimed was full of arms and munitions. Brazenly the Porra admitted the shooting, justified it under the Ley de Fuga ("Law of Flight"). Student Gonzalez, they said, had been arrested while prowling near the warehouse. He was shot "while attempting to escape."

The Porra did not know very much about Student Gonzalez. Before morning Havana hummed with another version of his death: He had been arrested early in the afternoon, questioned and tortured brutally for hours, finally shot and dumped near the warehouse. The most important thing about Mariano Gonzalez that the Porra did not know was that he was a Spanish citizen. Until last week pro-Machado and anti-Machado terrorists had been scrupulously careful to keep their assassinations to themselves.

There are 400,000 Spaniards resident in Cuba. Quick and hard the Spanish Government acted. In Madrid Foreign Minister Luis de Zulueta made a statement on the killing (which was barred from all Cuban newspapers) and wired urgent orders to Spain's embassy in Havana. Spanish Charge d'Affaires Rafael Forns called immediately on Cuban Secretary of State Orestes Ferrara, sniffed indignantly at the latter's suggestion that all official moves be postponed until after a Cuban "judicial investigation." Next day he delivered his Government's formal note, a message conspicuous for its lack of diplomatic phrases. Its gist:

Spain refused even to discuss the Cuban suggestion that the young student was not a Spanish citizen. Spain recalled previous Spanish protests on the subject of Cuba's Ley de Fuga-and demanded punishment of the guilty Porra agents. Spain joined the mother of Student Gonzalez in demanding a public autopsy to prove whether or not he had been tortured before death.

At this point the Spanish regional clubs took a hand. Spanish clubs in Cuba have a total membership of more than 200.000, exert considerable political influence, combine the advantages of a social club with a burial society and provide medical insurance to their members. They offered all their resources to hire the best of lawyers, the best of private detectives to push the investigation.

*Royal Spain's use of this same convenient "law" was one of the most telling arguments of Cuban revolutionists in the '90s.

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