Mario Chanes de Armas

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mario Chanes de Armas (born October 25, 1927 in Havana , † February 24, 2007 in Miami ) was a Cuban revolutionary and former comrade in arms of Fidel Castro , who later spent 30 years in Cuban prisons on charges of counterrevolutionary activities.

Together with Fidel Castro, he fought against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista . In 1953 , Chanes participated in the attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, organized and led by Castro . Sentenced to ten (Chanes) and 15 years (Castro) imprisonment, they spent time together in prison. As a result of an amnesty , they were both released after 21 months and shortly afterwards went into exile in Mexico . They returned to Cuba together on board the yacht Granma in December 1956 to start the guerrilla war there. After the 82 expeditionaries a few days after their landing, which was accompanied by many mishaps, were attacked by government troops and broken up into small groups, Chanes made his way to Havana. There he was active in the revolutionary underground of the July 26th Movement and was arrested in October 1958 while trying to smuggle dynamite out of the Florida Keys by boat . With Batista's fall, he was finally released in early January 1959. Chanes' hope was a Cuba of freedom and democracy, and he soon came into opposition to Castro, who, contrary to his promises repeated up until the spring of 1959, established a Marxist-Leninist regime that he ruled .

He returned to prison as early as 1961, this time at the instigation of his former companion, the charge being counter-revolutionary. He was accused of being involved in an attempted assassination attempt on the dictator Castro, which he denied throughout his life. The rift was personal and ideological. His likeness was erased from all pictures showing him with the Cuban leader. It was not until 2015, on the 60th anniversary of the early release of the Moncada fighters, that the party's own daily Granma attracted attention by publishing a photo of the event on its front page, in which Chanes and Castro were unusually not cut out of the picture.

While in custody, Chanes became the leader of the minority opposed to communist re-education. The group went on hunger strikes to protest against the conditions of detention . The result was psychological terror and isolation torture. He was released the day before the end of his thirtieth year in prison. Chanes, who was jailed five months after his wedding, had a son he never met: he was born after his incarceration and died in 1984 at the age of 22. As punishment for Chanes' refusal to participate in a re-education program, he was not allowed to attend the funeral. He was allowed to attend his parents' funerals in 1971 and 1979.

Chanes de Armas was held longer than any other political prisoner of the 20th century , including Nelson Mandela . After his release in 1991, mediated by the Chilean government, he was initially not allowed to leave the country. It was not until 1993 that he was finally able to move to Florida , where Cuban exiles gave him a hero's welcome. A month later, US President Bill Clinton received him at the White House . The last years of Chanes' life were characterized by Alzheimer's disease .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c David Adams: 'It's like I never existed', in: St. Petersburg Times of July 26, 2003, accessed on June 5, 2014 (English)
  2. ↑ 'Granma' publica sin mutilar una foto de Fidel Castro con Mario Chanes de Armas, in: Diario de Cuba from May 15, 2015, accessed on January 24, 2017 (Spanish)
  3. ↑ Mario Chanes de Armas, 80, Dies; Jailed by Castro, in: New York Times, February 27, 2007, accessed June 5, 2014
  4. ↑ a b c Phil Davison: Obituary: Mario Chanes de Armas, in: Financial Times of March 2, 2007 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Chanes de Armas, Mario
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chanes, Mario
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban freedom fighter and political prisoner
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Havana
DATE OF DEATH February 24, 2007
Place of death Miami