Page "History of Cuba" Paragraph 9

Clergyman Bartolomé de Las Casas observed a number of massacres initiated by the invaders as the Spanish swept over the island, notably the massacre near Camagüey of the inhabitants of Caonao.

According to his account, some three thousand villagers had traveled to Manzanillo to greet the Spanish with loaves, fishes and other foodstuffs and were " without provocation, butchered ".

The surviving indigenous groups fled to the mountains or the small surrounding islands before being captured and forced into reservations.

One such reservation was Guanabacoa, which is today a suburb of Havana.