Monument to Dutch admiral reopened in Cuban province

 MATANZAS, Cuba, Oct 11 (ACN) After a meticulous restoration, the monument to Admiral Piet Heyn, from the Netherlands, who in the local bay captured the Flota de la Plata in 1628, an event that transcended as the greatest naval disaster in the history of Spain, was reopened today.

The piece, created by Dutch artist Willem Adolf Verbon (1921-2003), was returned to its original location on the shores of the harbor in 1998, four years after being vandalized, causing specialists to work on it.

It is an act of justice and vindication of the figure of the sailor, said Ercilio Vento Canosa, Historian of the City, who emphasized the transcendence of the event for the strengthening of the Dutch power, and contributed to the foundation (for defensive purposes) of this city, which will be 330 years old this October 12.

Nadia Verwaal, deputy ambassador of Netherlands to Cuba, highlighted the battle as one of the events that link the two countries, and given the presence of several Dutch shipwrecks in Cuban waters, both nations carried out joint research on maritime heritage.

Verwaal thanked the restoration work undertaken by a team under the guidance of Edel Arencibia Rodriguez, sculptor and president of the Advisory Council for the Development of Monumental Sculpture in Matanzas.

Susely Morfa Gonzalez, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in this western province; Mario Sabines Lorenzo, provincial governor; Leonel Perez Orozco, City Conservator, and other personalities participated in the ceremony.