José Pardo Llada

José Pardo Llada (born July 27, 1923 in Sagua la Grande ; † August 7, 2009 ) was a Cuban-Colombian journalist, politician and diplomat.

Pardo Llada attended the Jesuit college El Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in his hometown and began studying law at the University of Havana , which he gave up to pursue a career in journalism. From 1943 he worked for the Cuban radio. As a popular commentator on the program La Palabra on Unión Radio , he criticized the corruption in the government of Ramón Grau San Martín and Carlos Prío Socarrás in the late 1940s and was nominated for the House of Representatives by the opposition Partido del Pueblo Cubano (Ortodoxos) .

After the 1952 coup of Fulgencio Batista , Pardo Llada, who heavily criticized the new government, was arrested several times. In addition to his often forcibly interrupted work as a radio commentator, he also wrote for the weekly magazine Bohemia and the daily newspaper Diario Nacional . When he was suspected of complicity along with other leading opposition politicians after Fidel Castro's attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba in July 1953, he evaded arrest by fleeing to the Argentine embassy. The Argentine government granted him political asylum and allowed him to travel into exile. After the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, he initially sided with the new government. He traveled to Egypt and the Soviet Union with Che Guevara and accompanied Castro to the United Nations headquarters in New York. In July 1960 he was assassinated in Havana because of his defense of the Cuban Revolution, but he escaped unharmed.

In March 1961 he broke away from Fidel Castro while on a trip to Mexico. Since he was not granted political asylum there, he finally came to Cali in Colombia in December 1961 after a stay in Spain. He continued his journalistic activities there, directed radio programs, was a newscaster on television and wrote for the magazines Cromos , El Tiempo , Caracol and Diario Occidente . In 1974 he received the Colombian citizenship and became a member of parliament in the province of Valle del Cauca . Later he was ambassador of the Republic of Colombia in Norway and in the Dominican Republic.

After 43 years in exile, he returned to his Cuban homeland for the first time in 2004 for an eye operation.

Publications

Memorias de la Sierra Maestra, Tierra Nueva, Havana 1960.
Bartolomé Masó: el presidente que vetaron los yanquis, Patronato del Libro Popular, Havana 1960.
El “Che” que yo conocí, Bedout , 1970.
Fidel: de los jesuítas al Moncada, Plaza y Janés, Bogotá 1976.
Pido la palabra, Pedidos Movimiento Cívico, Cali 1983.
Fidel y el “Che”, Plaza y Janés, Barcelona 1988.
Yo me acuerdo: diccionario de nostalgias cubanas, Ediciones Universal, Miami 1993.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Pardo Llada, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Cuban journalist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	July 27, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sagua la Grande
DATE OF DEATH	August 7, 2009