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Saturday 20 January 2018
Celebration Day of a National Hero
ORANJESTAD - The island vember 26, 1986. For the ment that was elected in erlands. However, it never Status Aparte within the
of Aruba has a special day Aruban people, his words September 2017. There came to a total indepen- Kingdom of the Nether-
coming up. Next week will never be forgotten. He were two stages in which dence of Aruba in 1996; it lands was to be a perma-
Thursday, January 25th, the told his people: “Si mi cain- the Independence was was dropped in 1990. The nent one.q
island will have lots of festiv- acaminda, gara e ban- formed: the first one was
ities that honor the late pro- dera y sigue cu e lucha’ set for 1986, the second
autonomy political leader which means ‘If I fall along was set for ten years later
Gilberto Francois (Betico) the way, grab the flag and and enhanced the inde-
Croes. He helped the island continue the struggle’. pendence from the Neth-
attain the Status Aparte.
Aruba was allowed to func- Active Man
tion as a commonwealth The father of the Aruban
within the Dutch Kingdom nation, as he is called often,
and Betico is honored for was an active man in Ca-
this outcome since 1989 ribbean organizations while
by celebrating the Dia di he studied in the Nether-
Betico. The official holiday lands. Betico was a social
features performances, man, participated in sports
sporting events and games and the social and cultural
throughout the island. community. He worked as
a teacher and instituted
Aruba Today will keep you the official seal, flag and
informed in the coming hymn for the island.
editions of the newspaper During the Round table
about the events that you Conference of 1981, he
can expect at this festive was responsible for formally
day. Croes himself was not setting the date for Aruba’s
able to enjoy the results independency. Betico also
of his ongoing struggle; became leader of the po-
he was involved in an ac- litical party Movimiento
cident on December 31, Electoral di Pueblo (MEP),
1985, and got into a coma. now the main party that
He passed away on No- forms the current govern-
