Gilberto François "Betico" Croes was born on January 25, 1938 in Santa Cruz, Aruba. After secondary school, he went to the Netherlands to study at the Teachers' Training College. After he obtained his certificate he came back to Aruba and started teaching at the Sint Jozef School and the Antonius College in Santa Cruz.
Betico Croes, a young ambitious schoolmaster/politician, started his political carrier in 1967 as a member of the Arubaanse Volks Partij (AVP). In 1971 Betico Croes became the leader of a new political party, Movimiento Electoral di Pueblo (MEP).
As a politician, Betico Croes and the MEP strived for a separate status for Aruba within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, independent of the Netherlands Antilles. Betico Croes took the initiative to adopt an Aruban flag and an Aruban anthem. He was also responsible for the referendum held March 1977, for Aruba's independence. The majority of the Aruban people declared itself in favor of the independence of Aruba.
Betico Croes led the Aruban delegation during the Round Table Conferences where he succeeded in obtaining the Status Aparte for Aruba. Aruba’s independence was set into two stages:
1. Aruba’s independence from the Netherlands Antilles in 1986;
2. Aruba’s independence from the Netherlands in 1996. (This clause was erased in 1990).
However Betico Croes never saw his accomplishments. On December 31st, 1985, the evening before the Status Aparte would take effect, Betico Croes got into a traffic accident and went into a coma. He passed away, almost eleven months later.
Betico Croes became the modern "liberator" of the Aruban cause, namely to become an independent partner within the Royal Dutch Kingdom.
Every year on January 25th, Arubans continue to celebrate Betico's birthday to remember him. Betico Croes Day is a national holiday in Aruba.
