“I will stay with these comrades forever, because theirs is the only just battle there is”

Pauline’s recorded declaration, “I will stay with these comrades forever, because theirs is the only just battle there is,” turns a pledge of personal loyalty into a public claim that The cadre’s struggle is uniquely just. Made while Juan and Yvonne questioned whether Pauline could be trusted in a crisis, the statement helped transform the group’s public image and Pauline’s standing within it.

The pledge and its context

Pauline’s path from captive to comrade had depended on trust built gradually: she was allowed to see her captors, move around more freely, and eventually attend meetings and offer advice as ransom talks with her parents faltered. Her admission was not unanimous. Juan and Yvonne, who had been among her most hostile captors, were overruled when they voted against her.

Even after that decision, they challenged her capacity and loyalty, speculating that she might surrender or betray the group if it were attacked. The declaration was recorded against this background of suspicion. Its promise of permanence and its assertion that the comrades’ cause was the only just one answered those doubts in public terms, even as the group’s internal relationships remained strained.

Public reception and reversal

The tape attracted wide notice: graffiti appeared, major newspapers reprinted its full text, and the establishment reacted with shock. That response marked a sharp reversal for The cadre, which had come to seem like a self-absorbed group of young people who had badly mishandled their first action and won less sympathy than the forces they opposed. The recording abruptly altered that impression.

The change also unsettled Juan and Yvonne. Though they could not accept the attention surrounding Pauline, the tape made her, in the group’s eyes, its Sister and ultimate prize. The phrase therefore accompanied a shift not only in the public’s attention but also in Pauline’s symbolic value within The cadre.

Significance

The statement’s force lies in the contrast between its absolute language and the divided circumstances of its making. Pauline declares lasting allegiance while two comrades doubt her, and the recording’s public impact exceeds the private accord she had struggled to gain. Its broadcast turns a personal avowal into a political instrument: the words help the cadre acquire a more compelling public image, while making Pauline central to that image.