Excerpts from Fidel’s speech delivered on the centenary commemoration of the Baraguá Protest, in Santiago de Cuba.
 
...What surprised and deeply hurt Maceo and his forces, was the news that, as they concluded the battle of Camino de San Ulpiano, the Pact of Zanjón had just been signed in Camagüey. And Maceo, indignant, bitter, asked himself what his men would say, what his comrades would say, what the wounded would say, how this could be justified before their dead, lost in those battles, if at this precise moment, they were signing a peace without independence.
 
And this peace without independence had been made without consulting all the forces, since the forces of Maceo, one of the most important of the Revolution, had not been consulted…
 
Maceo met with Martínez Campos… not to agree on anything, because nothing was agreed to there…
 
He began by saying that he disagreed with what was agreed at Zanjón, continued expressing himself personally, or through his trusted comrades, that what they wanted was independence. To the point that Martinez Campos said that if he had known that they wanted a meeting to ask for something impossible thing, he would not have met…
 
But in the midst of this, something of great value occurs, because one of Maceo's assistants then explained to Martínez Campos, in essence, he said: "Well, you say you cannot give us independence. Could you give slaves their freedom?” ...
 
This is the essence of the Baraguá Protest. Maceo and Cubans proposed to continue the war and, in effect, agreed that hostilities would resume on March 23 ...
 
With the Protest of Baraguá, the patriotic and revolutionary spirit of our people reached its highest point, reached its climax, reached its peak; and ... the flags of the homeland and of the revolution, of the true revolution, with independence and with social justice, were placed in their highest position.