Cubans commemorate today the 153rd anniversary of the execution by firing squad of eight medical students, considered one of the most heinous crimes committed on the island by Spanish colonialism.

As is traditional, hundreds of students will make a pilgrimage this day from the steps of the University of Havana to the monument commemorating the vile murder, at Prado and Malecón in Old Havana.

On 24 November 1871, students from the first year of Medicine were waiting in the Anatomical Amphitheatre for their professor Pablo Valencia, who was due to give a class, but when they found out that he would be late, several of them decided to attend the dissection practices of Dr Domingo Fernández Cubas.

According to historical notes, some of them entered the cemetery, located near the school, and walked through its courtyards, as entry was not forbidden, and one of them, Alonso Álvarez de la Campa, took a flower that was in front of the cemetery offices, which provoked the wrath of the caretaker, named Vicente Cobas.

Cobas accused them of scratching the glass covering the niche where the remains of the Spanish journalist Gonzalo Castañón, director of La Voz de Cuba, spokesman for the volunteer corps, who had been killed by a Cuban patriot in Key West, were laid to rest.

The students were arrested and tried in a summary trial, but the verdict was not accepted, and a second trial was held, and the young men were sentenced to the maximum penalty.

Three others were chosen at random to carry out the punishment.

The eight students condemned to die were led handcuffed with a crucifix between their hands to the esplanade of La Punta, where the execution took place.