Luis Andrés Vargas Gómez

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Luis Andrés Vargas Gómez (born May 14, 1915 in Havana , † January 13, 2003 in Coral Gables ) was a Cuban lawyer, economist , diplomat and anti-Castro activist .

Life

The son of Pedro Vargas and Margarita Gómez Toro (daughter of the general and independence hero Máximo Gómez ) studied at the University of Havana and obtained a doctorate there in 1944. In 1936 he started a diplomatic career in the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

After Fidel Castro took over the government in 1959, Luis Andrés Vargas Gómez initially took over the post of permanent representative of Cuba to the United Nations in Geneva, but went into exile in Florida in 1960 . Here he was involved in the planning and preparation of the Bay of Pigs invasion . Luis Andrés Vargas Gómez returned to Cuba five days before the invasion began. After the failure of the company, he was arrested by the Castro regime and initially sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to a 30-year prison term. After more than 20 years in prison, he was released in 1982. After negotiations between the US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson (who achieved the release of 25 political prisoners ) with Fidel Castro, Vargas was allowed to travel to live with his wife, who was living in exile in Florida.

In the USA, he headed the Institute for Latin American Studies at the Catholic St. Thomas University in Miami and was involved in the Cuban exile opposition. From 1986 to 1999 he had a column in the Spanish language newspaper El Nuevo Herald . He died of kidney failure at the age of 87.

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personal data
SURNAME Vargas Gómez, Luis Andrés
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban lawyer, economist, diplomat and anti-Castro activist
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Havana
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2003
Place of death Coral Gables