8/25/2023 0 Comments Young maria teresa mirabalThe regime's cover story of an "accident backfired. To make it seem as if it were an accident, the bodies were returned to the car and pushed down the ravine. All four were handcuffed, strangled, and clubbed to death. They were taken to separate locations in a ravine so that the victims could not see each other's execution. Under orders from Trujillo, a group of six specially selected members of the secret military police ambushed the sisters and their driver and ordered them out of the car. On November 25, 1960, Minerva, Maria Teresa, Patria (who had decided to accom-pany them out of solidarity), and their driver, a young anti-Trujilloist named Rufiño de la Cruz, set off by jeep to visit their husbands in Puerto Plata. With rumors rampant that an order for their death had been issued, the sisters traveled with an entourage that included children and elderly people, even though Minerva questioned whether the dictator would indeed dare to kill them. Unbeknownst to them, this was all under orders of Trujillo. Their husbands Manuel and Leandro were transferred to a prison in Puerto Plata, a location much closer to their homes, which made visiting them frequently possible. However, in May they were rearrested, taken to “la 40" and sentenced to 30 years. Once free, they continued their underground political work, albeit more discreetly. Minerva and Maria Teresa, on the other hand, were released relatively unharmed on February 7. The men were placed in solitary confinement in a prison called “la 40,“ which was notorious for extreme torture, including electric shock and pulling off pris-oners' fingernails. Patria's husband, Pedro González, escaped arrest by going into hiding. With the expansion of the movement, secrecy became more vulnerable, and soon the secret military police uncovered the movement's activities, and arrested many of its leaders, including Minerva and Maria Teresa and their husbands, Manuel and Leandro, in early January 1960. The initial group numbered 13 and very quickly grew to include some of the most prominent members of the community. Realizing that creating a resistance movement required recruitment and organization of other like-minded citizens, Minerva and her husband organized El Movimiento 14 de Junio, a name derived from a group of Dominican exiles whose invasion to overthrow the government was set for June 14,1959.
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