Source: National Archives & Historic Records of Dominican Republic
Military • Historical Archive • 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic • 0 views

Cayo Báez 🇩🇴

Cayo Báez (Known as "El Mártir Campesino")
Peasant Farmer, Guerilla Patriot, Symbol of Resistance against US Occupation
Born c. 1895 🇩🇴 El Salto, Bonao, Dominican Republic
Passed Away c. 1975 Bonao, Dominican Republic
Lifespan 80 years old
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"You can burn my flesh with hot iron, but you can never burn out my Dominican blood."

Archival Overview

Heroic peasant patriot who survived gruesome torture by occupying US Marines in 1920—having hot machetes pressed against his bare stomach—refusing to betray Dominican anti-occupation guerrillas (Gavilleros).

Biographical Record

Cayo Báez was born circa 1895 in Bonao. During the brutal United States military occupation of 1916–1924, rural Dominican fighters known as 'Gavilleros' waged desperate guerrilla resistance across the eastern and central regions.

Captured by US Marine intelligence in 1920, Báez was demanded to reveal the locations of rebel guerrilla units. When he refused, Marines heated machete blades over red-hot coals, burning his stomach and chest into charred ribbons of flesh. Báez never broke. Photographs of his scarred torso were circulated worldwide by Horace Knowles, shaming the US government into ending the occupation.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Bonao Municipal Cemetery
Bonao, Dominican Republic
GPS: 18.9480, -70.4090
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