In January of 1959 I worked under the well known leader of the Purging Commission, Ciro Redondo Column, fortress of La Cabaña. I was a recent Law School graduate and had the enthusiasm of one who witnesses his own generation assume power.
I was part of the team assembling the details of the cases against those accused of committing crimes during the previous government, such as murder, embezzlement, torture, betrayal, etc. Through my desk passed the files of accused men such as Commander Alberto Boix Coma and the journalist Otto Meruelo. Most of the indicted were military of low ranks, or politicians of no renown or charisma. On their side, the witnesses were ardent youth, vengeful, utopian, or simply malicious, anxious to earn revolutionary honors. I remember a Lieutenant Llivre, with an eastern-Cuba accent who would instigate us with “We must set up the show, we must bring real revolutionary witnesses who can shout ‘justice!, justice!, firing squad!, esbirros*!. This is what moves people.” The commissioner of the Marianao section once exhorted us: “We have to get all of these heads. All of them”
At the beginning, the Tribunals were composed of civilian and military lawyers, under the direction of Captain Mike Duque de Estrada and Lieutenants Sotolongo and Rivero (who later went crazy), and the prosecutors Tony Suarez de la Fuente (Pelayito) also known as “Pool o’blood” (Charco de Sangre) among others. Then, most of us quit given the excesses. Later, others without any legal training occupied our positions.
There were relatives of victims of the previous regime who were put in charge of judging the accused.
The first case on which I worked was that of Ariel Lima, a former revolutionary who had gone to the government side. His fate was sealed. He was dressed in prison uniform. I saw him handcuffed with his teeth chattering. According to the Law of the Guerrillas the facts were judged without any consideration to general juridical principles. The right of Habeas Corpus had been suspended.
The statements of the investigating officer constituted irrefutable proof of wrongdoing. The defense lawyer simply admitted the accusations and requested the generosity of the government in order to reduce the sentence. In those days, Guevara was visible in his black beret, cigar in mouth. Cantinflas-like face and bandaged arm in sling. He was extremely thin and his slow and cold tone demonstrated his “posse” of “gray eminence” of the Revolution and total adherence to Marxist theory. Many people congregated in his office and engaged in lively discussions about the revolutionary process. However, his conversation used to be full of irony, he never showed any alteration in temperament or paid any attention to different opinions He reprimanded in private more than one colleague; in public, he chastised us all: “Don’t delay these trials. This is a revolution, the proofs are secondary. We have to proceed by conviction. They are a gang of criminals and murderers. Besides, remember that there is an Appeals Tribunals”
This Appeals Tribunal never decided in favor of the appeal. It simply confirmed the sentences. It was presided by Commander Ernesto Guevara Serna.
The executions took place in the early morning hours. Once sentence was passed, the relatives and friends exploded in horrible cries, supplications of pity for their children, their husbands, etc, Desperation and terror spread throughout the room. Several women had to be taken out by force. The next step was “goodbye” a room where they embraced for the last time, united by pain. Those embraces of minutes looked like the prelude of a long trip. Once alone, there were some men who resisted until the time of the discharge of the guns. Others went shaking, dejected, overwhelmed. One policeman, as a last wish wanted permission to urinate. Many learned only that day what a priest was. More than one died shouting :”I am innocent” A brave captain commanded his own execution.
To witness such a butchery was a trauma that will accompany me to my grave and it is my mission to let this be known. During those hours the walls of that medieval castle received the echoes of the rhythmic footstep of the squad, the clicking of the rifles, the command voices, the resounding of the shots, the sorry howling of the dying and the shouting of officers and guards upon their final shots. The macabre silence when everything was consummated.,
In front of the wall, full of holes by the bullets, tied to posts, the agonizing corpses remained, soaked in blood and paralyzed in indescribable positions, spastic hands, painful expressions of shock, unhinged jaws, a hole where an eye used to be before. Some of the bodies had the skulls destroyed and exposed brains due to the last shot.
Executions took place from Monday to Saturday, and each day about one to seven prisoners were executed, sometimes more. Death sentence cases had a blanket authorization of Fidel, Raul and Ché, and were decided by the Tribunal or by the Communist Party. Each member of the firing squad got fifteen pesos per execution. The officers got twenty five. In Oriente province summary sentences were profusely applied, but I don’t have reliable figures. Nevertheless, in La Cabaña, until June of 1959, about six hundred prisoners were executed, plus and indefinite number of prison sentences… all this after a revolutionary process in which about four thousand people lost their lives on both sides.**
This thread is neither about Obama, nor Bush. Stay on topic.
