On Plaza Betico Croes, Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes thanked the statesman for the Aruba he left for this generation and those in the future.
She went over the life of Betico Croes and his fight and said that “thanks to the fight led by Betico, other countries were inspired to fight for their independence as well.”
The Prime Minister talked more about Betico as the family man, as a person, and primarily as her uncle. “The attention he gave each one of us nephews and nieces was the same as that given to his children. I was 20 years old when I spoke to him for the last time before his fatal accident on December 31st, 1985, and it was to stimulate me to continue my studies. And that is how he was with each one of us. During one of his speeches, the one we call his farewell speech at Seri Noka, Betico himself said, “I am not the father of the family of a mother, father, and four children. I’m a particular father of Aruba completely. And that is what the children of Aruba who knew him felt as well.”
She talked about the union that the deceased leader and statesman wanted to inculcate in the people. One union, because he always said: “a united people will never be defeated.”
She also admitted that Betico Croes did not start the fight for the autonomy of our country. Before his time, Great politicians already expressed the desire of the people to be boss in their own home. However, the fight started in the 40s, of which my grandfather Panchico Croes was also one who signed the petition, was abandoned, and it was Betico who grabbed the flag and continued with the fight until the end.
Prime Minister Wever-Croes also talked about the dilemma she went through because of the Covid-19 situation and the negotiations with the Netherlands. She would often think about what Betico Croes would have done if he faced such a decision. But in the end, she concluded that she would never know what Betico would have done. The one thing she does know is that Betico would have been proud of his people, the people that he could unite in a single ideal: Make Aruba a country.
In the end, she expressed, “if Betico were alive, I would have thanked him for giving us an autonomous country to live in and for teaching us how to maintain it.”
