Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo

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Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo (born December 8, 1934 in Madrid , † October 26, 2012 in Havana ) was a Spanish - Cuban guerrilla commander who played a leading role in the armed struggle against the dictator Fulgencio Batista . After Batista was overthrown, he stood in the resistance against the regime of Fidel Castro , for which he was imprisoned for 22 years, and after returning from exile he lived as a prominent opposition figure in Havana until his death.

Childhood and youth

Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo was born the sixth child of doctor Carlos Gutiérrez Zabaleta, an activist of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party who served as a military doctor in the army of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and achieved the rank of major. His eldest brother José Antonio died at the age of 16 in the Battle of Majadahonda . After the end of the war in 1939, the father was banned from working and the family subsequently lived in poverty. His brother Carlos went into exile in France and fought first with the French and then with the US troops against the Axis powers . Carlos helped the entire family to emigrate to Cuba in 1946.

Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo accompanied his brother Carlos during his resistance campaigns against the Batista dictatorship. Carlos led the attack on the presidential palace organized by the guerrilla organization Directorio Revolucionario (DR) on March 13, 1957, in which Eloy also took part and in which Carlos was killed.

Activities as a guerrilla commander

In the course of the large-scale police repression against the Directorio Revolucionario after the spectacular action, Gutiérrez Menoyo rose quickly within the organization and at the age of 22 was already responsible for actions in the capital. The organization's board of directors, which had partly gone into exile in Florida and sought support in the United States, approved his proposal in September 1957 to set up a guerrilla front inland. After exploring the area, Gutiérrez Menoyo declared publicly in November 1957 in the province of Las Villas the establishment of the "National Front in the Escambray Mountains" (Spanish: Frente Nacional del Escambray), of which he was in command. In February 1958, he and his deputy commanding officer William Morgan received a contingent of fighters and weapons that had arrived from Miami . After several victorious skirmishes with government troops, in late February 1958 he proclaimed the Escambray Manifesto, which called for a social revolution and the reinstatement of the progressive constitution of 1940.

In the summer of 1958, Menoyo sparked competition within the Directorio Revolucionario because he opposed the claim of DR founding member Rolando Cubela to take command of the guerrillas in the Escambray Mountains that Gutiérrez Menoyo had built up since autumn 1957. Menoyo was then expelled from the Directorio Revolucionario by General Secretary Faure Chomón on charges of treason and formed an independent combat force with its own units under the name "Second National Front in the Escambray Mountains" (Spanish: Segundo Frente Nacional del Escambray). Comandante William Morgan remained his deputy. Most of the 300 or so fighters who joined him were supporters of the Partido Revolucionario Cubano (Auténticos) . The ex-President Carlos Prío, who had been deposed by Batista, also supported Menoyo's guerrilla association from Miami, which achieved numerous combat successes and land gains in the south of the Las Villas province in the remaining months of the guerrilla war. The force led by Menoyo was known to be decidedly anti-communist. He provoked a one-time guerrilla war incident when he the of Ernesto Guevara commanded about 200 fighters comprehensive Association of the July 26th Movement prevented them from taking over the control of the Escambray mountains, as Guevara in the summer of 1958 there on his in Sierra Maestra had begun the advance. After Batista escaped early in the morning on New Year's Day 1959, Menoyo's troops were the first rebels to enter the capital.

After the victory of the revolution

In addition to members of the July 26th Movement founded by Fidel, the Directorio Revolucionario and representatives of the Communist Party ( PSP ) were included in the reorganization of the state apparatus under Castro's control . Menoyo retained his rank as Comandante of the revolutionary armed forces, but he and his Segundo Frente remained excluded from the distribution of power and quickly lost their importance with the victory of the revolution. He planned to build his own party in view of the elections that Castro had promised regularly before he came to power and wanted to solicit support in both Cuba and Florida, the traditional center of Cuban exile . Since he viewed both the concentration of power in Castro's hands and the early clear influence of communists in the revolutionary leadership with concern, he also made contact with the US embassy in Havana.

In the spring of 1959, Menoyo's confidante Morgan was contacted by representatives of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo , who had granted asylum to Batista and some of his followers and believed he could bring about a quick overthrow of the revolutionary regime under Castro, which was still being built. Menoyo and Morgan pretended to agree with Castro's opponents inside and outside the island of an armed coup plan, which provided for cash payments and extensive arms deliveries to several anti-communist groups and support from an external intervention corps. However, the two comandantes informed Fidel Castro, with whom they coordinated the next steps. The Trujillo Conspiracy continued to play until August 13, when it was made public by Castro himself. Earlier, on Castro's instructions, Menoyo and Morgan had received large arms deliveries from Trujillo through a series of misinformation about ongoing fighting, and the leaders of the conspiracy had been arrested by the revolutionary troops in Castro's presence at a meeting in Morgan's house, as had several thousand fighters suspected of being counter-revolutionary . Castro praised Menoyo and Morgan for their role in thwarting the counter-revolutionary overthrow and celebrated heroes in the media controlled by the revolutionary government.

In February 1960 Menoyo declared the official dissolution of the Second Escambray Front, which had around 3,000 men at the end of the guerrilla war, in the interests of the country's national unity. During 1960 he joined the armed resistance groups that had formed against the authoritarian and increasingly pro-communist Castro government.

First exile in Miami: Military chief of Alpha 66 and subsequent imprisonment in Cuba

In January 1961, shortly before his deputy from the time of the Segundo Frente Nacional, William Morgan, who had already been imprisoned for months, was convicted and executed for high treason, Menoyo fled to the United States by sea together with some officers of the rebel army. After the group was picked up by immigration officials upon arrival, they were initially held in a detention center in Texas for six months. After his release, Menoyo settled in Miami and devoted himself to the organization of material and logistical support for the fighters of the Segundo Frente Nacional, who were re-constituting themselves in the Escambray Mountains, but who were hopelessly inferior to Castro's troops. In the fall of 1961, Menoyo and other Cubans in exile founded the paramilitary group Alpha 66 , which pursued the armed struggle against Castro and whose military chief he was appointed. The union of the SFNE with Alpha 66 was announced in October 1962, in May 1963 another resistance group joined the alliance with the Movimiento Revolucionario del Pueblo (MRP), which mainly still had numerous fighters on the island, and Menoyos submitted itself to the military Command. Since May 1962 he organized numerous selective attacks from abroad against targets in Cuba for Alpha 66, whereby the US government under John F. Kennedy in the interest of easing relations with the Soviet Union from March 1963 acted more strongly against Alpha 66 and the material base as well significantly restricted the group's freedom of movement. The British government also took action against the use of a base in the Bahamas and arrested Menoyo while he was traveling in international waters in a gun-laden speedboat.

Return to Cuba, arrest and imprisonment

In December 1964 Menoyo tried to build a base for a new guerrilla force in Cuba. For this he landed with three comrades by boat from a base in the Dominican Republic near Baracoa in the far east of Cuba and spent the following four weeks in the dense rainforest until his rebel unit was tracked down and arrested. Menoyo learned at the earliest 20 years later that one of his three combatants was serving as a secret service officer in the service of the government in Havana. Fidel Castro had the prominent prisoner brought before him and offered to circumvent a death sentence for Menoyo and his colleagues by admitting in front of television cameras that the rural population encountered had given them no support. Menoyo agreed, whereupon his death sentence, pronounced a few days later after a 30-minute trial, was commuted to a 30-year prison sentence.

Menoyo continued his resistance to Castro while in custody by joining the so-called "Plantados" - a particularly disciplined core of political prisoners who, despite often extreme sanctions, refused to wear prisoner uniforms, take part in re-education or do heavy labor. As a result of mistreatment by his guards, Menoyo had been blind in one eye and almost deaf in one ear since late 1965. In 1970 he was sentenced to an additional 25 years in prison on charges of preparing for a prisoner revolt. In protest against the conditions of detention, especially of political prisoners, he took part in various forms of protest including extended hunger strikes, thereby helping to generate international attention, for example from Amnesty International , without himself belonging to the category of non-violent political prisoners particularly supported by AI.

During the policy of détente in US-Cuban relations pursued by US President Jimmy Carter , talks between the Cuban government and compromise-willing representatives of the exile, who were mostly in Miami, took place for the first time in 1978. In this way, the early release and departure of around 3,600 political prisoners and the possibility of visiting relatives in Cuba for Cubans in exile were achieved. Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo was originally supposed to be included in the amnesty, but was withheld by the Cuban side after Menoyo's filmed statements were published from the Miami prison that such an amnesty for political prisoners did not require dialogue with the exile. In addition to US President Carter, the Venezuelan President and Vice-President of the Socialist International , Carlos Andrés Pérez , and Pope John Paul II unsuccessfully campaigned for Menoyo's release against Castro .

Second exile in Miami: Foundation of Cambio Cubano and dialogue with Fidel Castro

Since 1978, when the Spanish Social Democratic Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez paid an official visit to Cuba, Menoyo's original homeland, Spain, has campaigned for his release through diplomatic channels. On the one hand, the Cuban government questioned Menoyo's Spanish citizenship and thus the right of the Spanish government to represent his interests, as he had also been granted Cuban citizenship in 1959. On the other hand, the condition was signaled that Menoyo had to put on the usual prisoner clothing before his release, whereas as a leading representative of political prisoners in Cuban prisons (Plantados) he had consistently refused since his arrest. After years of no progress, the Spanish Foreign Minister Francisco Fernández Ordóñez raised the issue of Menoyo to his counterpart Isidoro Malmierca in September 1985 , but Cuban diplomacy reacted negatively when the Spanish side made public that Menoyo's release was being negotiated. It was not until December 1986, a month after another state visit, during which the Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González had again campaigned for the prisoner, that Cuba Menoyo left for Spain.

When he traveled to Miami the following year, he was received as a hero by around 10,000 Cubans in exile. In January 1993 he founded the organization Cambio Cubano with some allies, which spoke out against the continuation of the violent confrontation with the Castro government and in favor of a dialogue with the aim of democratic change. With this position, he found himself in a small minority within the Cuban exile community in Miami and in some cases experienced violent rejection from former comrades in the armed struggle against Batista and Castro. Due to his prominent counter-position to the dominant opinion and his impressive biography, he received a lot of attention in the international media, especially in the 1990s. In 1995 he was allowed to travel to Cuba again for the first time and Fidel Castro received him for a talk lasting several hours. Menoyo tried at this and other meetings to convince Castro to make concessions in the direction of a gradual democratic opening, but was unsuccessful. After a phase of relative rapprochement, US-Cuban relations deteriorated significantly again from the mid-1990s, with the result that the room for negotiating dialogueros like Menoyo also dwindled.

Permanent return to Havana

After another trip to Cuba, he refused to leave the country in 2003 and stayed with his family in Havana, where he has lived since then. Menoyo was later informed by the US authorities that his unauthorized permanent stay in Cuba was punishable under US law, which is why his residence permit in the USA was revoked. The Cuban authorities tolerated his presence and his occasional comments critical of the government to foreign journalists, although Menoyo was hardly known to younger Cubans and was therefore no longer considered politically dangerous. Since his return, Menoyo has renounced media-effective campaigns and initiatives and appeared increasingly rarely in the international media, while other spokesmen of the opposition gained prominence - for example Yoani Sánchez , Oswaldo Payá or the women in white .

Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo died on October 26, 2012 in Havana. The Cuban state media did not report his death.

Political positions

  • Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo always spoke out against US interference in Cuban affairs and demanded that the future of Cuba should be decided democratically by the Cubans (inside and outside of Cuba).
  • As a specific act of interference, he opposed the US embargo and related travel bans and other legal restrictions in US-Cuban relations.
  • He propagated non-violent civil resistance in the country and the dialogue between Cubans in exile and the Cuban government.
  • He called for a political opening of Cuba in the direction of a democracy in which the ruling communists should also be able to contribute as a political force.
  • Menoyo viewed the reform steps under Raúl Castro's presidency as insignificant and completely inadequate, as they did not affect the country's political openness.

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://news.yahoo.com/cuban-dissident-eloy-gutierrez-menoyo-dies-131948017.html
  2. ↑ Ramón L. Bonachea and Marta San Martín: The Cuban insurrection, 1952-1959. Page 185f (English)
  3. ↑ La Revolucion's William Morgan, Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo and the Second Front in: The Times, accessed via The Havana Journal on November 15, 2011 (English)
  4. ↑ Ramón L. Bonachea and Marta San Martín: The Cuban insurrection, 1952-1959. Page 321 (English)
  5. ↑ Paul Bethel: The Losers: The definitive account, by an eyewitness, of the Communist conquest of Cuba ... Arlington House New Rochelle (NY) 1969, pp. 137-140 , accessed from LatinAmericanStudies.org on November 19, 2011 (English )
  6. ^ David Kaiser : The Road to Dallas. The Assassination of John. F. Kennedy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 2008, p. 39 f.
  7. ↑ Group In Cuban Revolt Dissolves in: The Toledo Blade of February 28, 1960, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on November 15, 2011 (English)
  8. ↑ a b Official History of II Frente, Alpha 66, MRP self-presentation from June 1965, accessed via Cuban Information Archives on November 25, 2011 (English)
  9. ↑ La historia que nunca se supo in: Granma Semanal of April 26, 1987, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on November 26, 2011 (Spanish)
  10. ↑ a b George Volsky: In Castro's Gulag in: New York Times of October 18, 1987, accessed on November 25, 2011 (English)
  11. ↑ Las Confesiones de Menoyo, el cabecilla contrarrevolucionario (interrogation protocol) in: Bohemia of February 12, 1965, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on November 26, 2011 (Spanish)
  12. ↑ Amnesty International : Report 1981: Cuba (PDF; 15.6 MB) pages 135f., Accessed on November 26, 2011 (English)
  13. ↑ Deborah Ramirez: Goals Of Cuban Summit Remain Unclear in: Sun Sentinel of April 18, 1994, accessed on November 26, 2011 (English)
  14. ↑ Rogelio Fabio Hurtado: Gutiérrez Menoyo, el Otro Comandante ( Memento from April 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Interview in: La Primavera de Cuba o. D., accessed on November 26, 2011 (Spanish)
  15. ↑ Más de ocho años de gestiones con La Habana in: El País of December 22, 1986, accessed on November 26, 2011 (Spanish)
  16. ↑ Stan Yarbro: Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, founder of Cambio Cubano, confronts a force as powerful as Castro: The exiles who condemn his moderate views in: Miami New Times of August 4, 1993, accessed November 26, 2011 (English)
  17. ↑ Uwe Schmitt : A "Comandante" between all fronts: Eloy Gutiérrez-Menoyo in: Die Welt from May 18, 2000, accessed on November 22, 2011
  18. ^ Rita Neubauer: From revolutionary to "dialoguero" in: Tagesspiegel of October 28, 1998
  19. ↑ Bert Hoffmann: Miami's hardliners are losing influence in: Die Tageszeitung from September 22, 1995
  20. ↑ Cuban exile leader returns 'for peace' in: BBC News of August 7, 2003, accessed November 26, 2011
  21. ↑ Anthony Boadle (Reuters): Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo threatened by US for living in Cuba in: Havana Journal of February 9, 2005, accessed on November 26, 2011 (English)
  22. ↑ Peter Burghardt: Nobody's man in Havanna in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of August 14, 2006
  23. ↑ Yoani Sánchez: Los medios oficiales cubanos ignoran muerte de Gutiérrez Menoyo , in: El País of October 26, 2012, accessed on November 15, 2012 (Spanish)
personal data
SURNAME Gutiérrez Menoyo, Eloy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gutiérrez, Eloy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish-Cuban guerrilla leader and opposition activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid , Spain
DATE OF DEATH October 26, 2012
Place of death Havana , Cuba