2-612-774 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

John B Spotorno, born in Trinidad in 1832, was a colonel during the Villas uprising in February 1869. He was a Cuban Patriot of Italian origin who became President of the Republic in Arms of Cuba in 1875-1876. He reached the rank of colonel on the Liberation Army and was a member of the House of Representatives of Cuba. He published the famous Decree, condemning to death anyone who made proposals which were not based on independence. He later joined the Autonomist Party and died in 1917.