Trying To Escape
By Rolando Suffos, MD
The Marquis Don Luis Prendergart, Governor of Cuba from November 1881 to August 1883, should have been a peaceful man. So peaceful that to free the island from the mafia families plaguing it he decided to negotiate with them.
In agreement with his offer, every gang leader willing to leave the country would be provided with an indult, a passport, and an official compensation of 2000 gold pesos. Another 5000 were to find their way into the bandits’ pockets as additional underground payments. Noted Godfathers, among them Chamendis, Lengue Romero, Victor Fragoso and Manuel Galano accepted. But the most prominent one refused such honorable capitulation. That man was my ancestor Victoriano.
His reasons to refuse were as solid and numerous as the 50 000 gold pesos of his illegal annual income. So the rebel let the Marquis know that he would not go into any exile unless provided with such amount. Four governors later, in August 1888, Victoriano was arrested.
By the end of the same month my notorious relative, kept prisoner in "La Fuerza Castle", had already been judged and sentenced to death. After that, he was transferred to the even more fortified "Prince's Castle", also in Havana, and shut in the most secure cell awaiting an execution scheduled for November 7th of that very year.
Four days before his programmed farewell to life, the convict disappeared from jail.
According to the official report, the prisoner employed a steel file to remove the thick iron bars of a skylight 33 feet above his head, and went through it with the aid of a one finger thick cotton rope.
The authorities in Madrid furious with the escape dismissed the then Governor Don Sabas Marin replacing him with General Manuel Salamanca who died quite soon –probably poisoned. Despite the interest that such a mysterious event and the life and death of Victoriano could arise, they make a story for another opportunity.
In what we are –or should be– more interested is in how to escape ourselves. Honestly speaking, I have spent not a small part my life trying to escape from traps, dangers, mistakes, and ghosts: Yes, the ghosts of the past, the present, and the future. I would dare to say that everybody has also tried more than once.
Among the many strategies to break loose there is one –the supernatural– which I have looked at from the clashing perspectives of my grandfather, a noted spiritualist; my parents, somehow Christians, and my officially atheist education in Cuba. This last one made of me a medical doctor with an evidence oriented mindset. That is why the story of Mr. B., one of my patients, interested me so deeply.
The man, who was facing emotional and physical problems went to see a medium. His first –free– consultation ended with a diagnosis: He was under the influence of an evil spirit. The cure would be attempted by way of an exorcism. Is it not true that Christ did something similar in the case of the possessed Gadarene?
At the appointed date, Mr. B. brought with him, as requested, a healthy dove, some perfume and a candle. The dove went to the exorcist hands, part of the perfume was rubbed on Mr. B’s forehead, and the rest thrown into a fire blazing in front of an altar. The candle was lighted and a chant started. Following its monotonous rhythm, the minister of the occult, standing behind his difficult spiritual case, moved the bird in circles.
Those movements brought the little bird, and the exorcist, progressively closer to the believer. The unintelligible canticle became louder and faster After a while, the shaking and sweating of the officiant’s body could be clearly perceived by the person expecting the arrival of the supernatural.
And it arrived.
Trembling, the exorcist transferred the dove to the exorcised and ordered him, “throw it to fly”. He did so. The bird took off, flied more or less twelve feet and fell to the ground. The man ran, and lifted it to see and feel how the agonizing dove, which showed no signs of violence, breathed its last in his own hands. Automatically, our friend felt a deep change, a liberation. Not as a payment, but just out of gratitude he looked for his wallet. . .
What had happened?
At the back of the man, the swindler had pressed the ribs of the dove breaking them. Acting as little spears, the fractured bones pierced the bird’s lungs to produce an internal injury called hemopneumothorax which leads to death by asphyxia.
The waving of the dove’s wings once it was allowed to fly inflicted further damage in those vital organs, closing a deadly circle where evil engulfed two more victims –our desperate friend and that little bird.
Satan’s means of deceit can be more effective than this one here considered, –in fact, they can involve the really supernatural. But in His Word, and through His Son, God has empowered us to avoid, expose, and destroy all the stratagems of the enemy.
I hopefully believe that before being publicly executed in January 1889, Victoriano, my criminal ancestor, had accepted Christ as the only way to escape toward pardon, freedom, and life. With the same faith I also believe my duty to show Mr. B. the open gates of his spiritual prison, and to call him as I was called, “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).
Note: Dr Suffos is interested in corresponding with whoever would like to mail him at suffos21@yahoo.es
By Rolando Suffos, MD
The Marquis Don Luis Prendergart, Governor of Cuba from November 1881 to August 1883, should have been a peaceful man. So peaceful that to free the island from the mafia families plaguing it he decided to negotiate with them.
In agreement with his offer, every gang leader willing to leave the country would be provided with an indult, a passport, and an official compensation of 2000 gold pesos. Another 5000 were to find their way into the bandits’ pockets as additional underground payments. Noted Godfathers, among them Chamendis, Lengue Romero, Victor Fragoso and Manuel Galano accepted. But the most prominent one refused such honorable capitulation. That man was my ancestor Victoriano.
His reasons to refuse were as solid and numerous as the 50 000 gold pesos of his illegal annual income. So the rebel let the Marquis know that he would not go into any exile unless provided with such amount. Four governors later, in August 1888, Victoriano was arrested.
By the end of the same month my notorious relative, kept prisoner in "La Fuerza Castle", had already been judged and sentenced to death. After that, he was transferred to the even more fortified "Prince's Castle", also in Havana, and shut in the most secure cell awaiting an execution scheduled for November 7th of that very year.
Four days before his programmed farewell to life, the convict disappeared from jail.
According to the official report, the prisoner employed a steel file to remove the thick iron bars of a skylight 33 feet above his head, and went through it with the aid of a one finger thick cotton rope.
The authorities in Madrid furious with the escape dismissed the then Governor Don Sabas Marin replacing him with General Manuel Salamanca who died quite soon –probably poisoned. Despite the interest that such a mysterious event and the life and death of Victoriano could arise, they make a story for another opportunity.
In what we are –or should be– more interested is in how to escape ourselves. Honestly speaking, I have spent not a small part my life trying to escape from traps, dangers, mistakes, and ghosts: Yes, the ghosts of the past, the present, and the future. I would dare to say that everybody has also tried more than once.
Among the many strategies to break loose there is one –the supernatural– which I have looked at from the clashing perspectives of my grandfather, a noted spiritualist; my parents, somehow Christians, and my officially atheist education in Cuba. This last one made of me a medical doctor with an evidence oriented mindset. That is why the story of Mr. B., one of my patients, interested me so deeply.
The man, who was facing emotional and physical problems went to see a medium. His first –free– consultation ended with a diagnosis: He was under the influence of an evil spirit. The cure would be attempted by way of an exorcism. Is it not true that Christ did something similar in the case of the possessed Gadarene?
At the appointed date, Mr. B. brought with him, as requested, a healthy dove, some perfume and a candle. The dove went to the exorcist hands, part of the perfume was rubbed on Mr. B’s forehead, and the rest thrown into a fire blazing in front of an altar. The candle was lighted and a chant started. Following its monotonous rhythm, the minister of the occult, standing behind his difficult spiritual case, moved the bird in circles.
Those movements brought the little bird, and the exorcist, progressively closer to the believer. The unintelligible canticle became louder and faster After a while, the shaking and sweating of the officiant’s body could be clearly perceived by the person expecting the arrival of the supernatural.
And it arrived.
Trembling, the exorcist transferred the dove to the exorcised and ordered him, “throw it to fly”. He did so. The bird took off, flied more or less twelve feet and fell to the ground. The man ran, and lifted it to see and feel how the agonizing dove, which showed no signs of violence, breathed its last in his own hands. Automatically, our friend felt a deep change, a liberation. Not as a payment, but just out of gratitude he looked for his wallet. . .
What had happened?
At the back of the man, the swindler had pressed the ribs of the dove breaking them. Acting as little spears, the fractured bones pierced the bird’s lungs to produce an internal injury called hemopneumothorax which leads to death by asphyxia.
The waving of the dove’s wings once it was allowed to fly inflicted further damage in those vital organs, closing a deadly circle where evil engulfed two more victims –our desperate friend and that little bird.
Satan’s means of deceit can be more effective than this one here considered, –in fact, they can involve the really supernatural. But in His Word, and through His Son, God has empowered us to avoid, expose, and destroy all the stratagems of the enemy.
I hopefully believe that before being publicly executed in January 1889, Victoriano, my criminal ancestor, had accepted Christ as the only way to escape toward pardon, freedom, and life. With the same faith I also believe my duty to show Mr. B. the open gates of his spiritual prison, and to call him as I was called, “out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9).
Note: Dr Suffos is interested in corresponding with whoever would like to mail him at suffos21@yahoo.es
Copyright © 2007 Rolando Suffos, MD. All rights reserved.