Jesús Yánez

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Jesús Yánez Pelletier (born June 21, 1917 in Caibarién , Villa Clara Province , Cuba , † September 18, 2000 in Havana ) was a Cuban opposition activist and human rights activist .

biography

Yánez originally served as the military overseer of the provincial prison of Boniato near Santiago de Cuba and became known in Cuba as the "man who saved Fidel Castro ". During Castro's pre-trial detention in August 1953 after the failed attack on the Moncada barracks , he refused to eliminate Castro by flooding the floor of the solitary cell and poisoning the prison food, as suggested by Lieutenant Ángel Machado, who was responsible for interrogating the prisoner. Instead, he carefully watched over Castro's protection while in custody.

Yánez later joined the rebels - "Movement of July 26th" ( M-26-7 ) and on January 1st, 1959 , after the end of the Cuban Revolution , he became the bodyguard of Prime Minister Castro. When Castro paid his first state visit to the USA some time after his swearing-in on February 16, 1959 , Yánez accompanied him during talks with US Vice President Richard Nixon . At the time, as a close confidante, he was an eyewitness to Castro's love affair with Marita Lorenz .

Over time he became increasingly disappointed with the policies of the new government and was arrested in 1960 for his political views and served around ten years in prison. After his release in 1971, he became a staunch critic of the human rights situation in Cuba in the opposition to the Castro regime. He is considered a symbolic figure and one of the founders of the Cuban human rights movement. First he was a member of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanas y Reconciliación Nacional), later of the likewise illegal Cuban Pro-Human Rights Committee (Comité Cubano Pro Derechos Humanos), of which he was vice-president until his death. The Cuban authorities had always denied him the necessary authorization to travel abroad. His widow received condolences from numerous international human rights activists, including Lech Wałęsa , Václav Havel , Desmond Tutu and Jelena Bonner .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jesus Yanez Pelletier; Castro's Jailer, 83, in: New York Times, September 21, 2000, accessed June 16, 2014
  2. ^ Antonio Rafael de la Cova: The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. P. 193, University of South Carolina Press, 2007 (English)
  3. ↑ In its waters . In: Spiegel Online of September 18, 2000 (No. 38/2000), last accessed on October 1, 2011.
  4. ↑ Concurrido entierro del disidente Yánez Pelletier (Spanish) In: El Nuevo Herald on 20 September 2000, accessed 19 May 2011
  5. ↑ Adios a un líder de los Derechos Humanos (Spanish) In: Carta de Cuba from September 2000, accessed on 19 May 2011
personal data
SURNAME Yánez, Jesús
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jesús Yánez Pelletier (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban opposition activist and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Caibarién , Villa Clara Province , Cuba
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 2000
Place of death Havana