Pedro Luis Boitel
Pedro Luis Boitel ( 1931 - May 25, 1972 ) was a Cuban dissident and political prisoner who died in custody as a result of a hunger strike .
Life and political engagement
Born into a humble family, Boitel graduated from the University of Havana and also worked as a radio technician.
Boitel was active in the opposition to Batista and was therefore in political exile in Venezuela until January 1, 1959, when Fulgencio Batista left Cuba, where he worked with Rómulo Betancourt on the Marcos Pérez Jiménez military government through the establishment of a secret radio station to overthrow in this land.
Boitel returned to Cuba on January 1, 1959, and enrolled at the University of Havana. He became president of the student body at the technical faculty.
When he realized that Fidel Castro was beginning to turn Cuba into a communist state, Boitel joined the secret organization MRR.
Trial and conviction
Boitel also won the University of Havana's student body elections. However, the communist candidate Rolando Cubelas was named president of the student body while Boitel was arrested and charged with conspiracy against the state.
In 1961, he was found guilty in a fast-track trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Imprisonment and hunger strike
Boitel was tortured and beaten in prison. His mother was also repeatedly humiliated when she visited him in prison. Even after serving his sentence, Boitel was not released. On April 3, 1972, he therefore declared that he was on a hunger strike to protest the inhumane conditions of the political prisoners. On May 25, 1972, he died of starvation.
Reactions to Boitel's death
In 1997 in the city of Placetas ( province of Villa Clara ) the National Movement for Civil Resistance "Pedro Luis Boitel" was founded to protect the rights of all prisoners and to achieve the amnesty of all political prisoners. The resistance movement organized many protests in front of various prisons and collected a total of 5000 signatures for a general amnesty for political prisoners by 1999.
Others
Armando Valladares Pérez was close friends with Pedro Luis Boitel.
Web links
- THIS IS THE STORY OF PEDRO LUIS BOITEL WHO DIED AS A POLITICAL PRISONER IN A CUBAN JAIL AFTER 53 DAYS IN HUNGER STRIKE. Collection of the Fatalities of Communism in Cuba, accessed July 5, 2015 (English / Spanish)
Individual evidence
- ^ Pedro Luis Boitel National Civic Resistance Movement. ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Directorio Democrático Cubano , accessed on November 16, 2013 (English)
- ^ Bertha Antúnez: Why I Became a Dissident. In: The Freedom Collection , accessed November 16, 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Boitel, Pedro Luis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cuban dissident and political prisoner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1931 |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 25, 1972 |