Huber Matos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Huber Matos (born November 26, 1918) was a Cuban revolutionary who successfully overthrew General Fulgencio Batista in concert with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, Raúl Castro and members of the 26th of July Movement. He had opposed Batista since the general's effective coup in 1952, which he regarded as unconstitutional, but became increasingly critical of the movement's shift towards Marxist principles, and the closening of ties with leaders of the Communist Party of Cuba. He was born in Yara, in the province of Oriente.

1 Reservations about Fidel Castro
2 Resignation
3 Attempt at Counterrevolution
4 Sentencing and imprisonment
5 Source
6 External links
7 References

[edit] Reservations about Fidel Castro

Matos, who met Fidel Castro through Celia Sánchez, a mutual friend, joined the revolutionary army after flying a plane load of arms from Costa Rica, into the Sierra Maestra mountains.^[1] Though fighting alongside Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution and becoming one of the "heroes of the Sierra Maestra", Matos became skeptical the movement's leader, seeing in Castro "despotic tendencies". Following Castro's triumphant ascension to power in 1959, Matos was made military governor of Camagüey Province. As a pro-democratic liberal, he soon became wary of Marxist sympathies shown by prominent revolution figures such as Raúl Castro and Che Guevara. According to Matos, "In late March and early April I found pro-Marxist propaganda in Verde Olivo, a magazine distributed to the armed forces... one, two, three articles. And we were seeing Che Guevara circulating with the leadership of the Cuban Communist party, and Raúl Castro having meetings with them, naming some Communists to his general staff, and I told myself, 'There is a second plan being put in place here.' But every time I brought it up to Fidel, he would say, 'No, no, no, I will not betray my commitment to Cuban history.'"

[edit] Resignation

In July 1959, a series of disputes between Castro, at that time Prime Minister of Cuba, and President Manuel Urrutia Lleó led to both leaders resigning. Shortly after, Castro resumed his position and replaced Urrutia with the Minister of Revolutionary Laws, Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado. Given his past concerns, Matos found the move troubling and decided to tender his resignation in a letter to Castro. On July 26, Castro and Matos met at the Hilton Hotel in Havana. The revolutionary leader was in a rather upbeat mood, as over a million people, including several thousand peasants, had flocked to the capital to celebrate the passage of the Agrarian Reform Law.

According to Matos, Castro told him, "'Your resignation is not acceptable at this point. We still have too much work to do,' he said. 'I admit that Raúl and Che are flirting with Marxism... but you have the situation under control... Forget about resigning... But if in a while you believe the situation is not changing, you have the right to resign.'"

In September 1959, Matos wrote, "Communist influence in the government has continued to grow. I have to leave power as soon as possible. I have to alert the Cuban people as to what is happening." On October 19, he sent a second letter of resignation to Castro. Two days later, Castro sent fellow revolutionary Camilo Cienfuegos to arrest Matos. During the subsequent meeting between Cienfuegos and Matos, who had grown close during the revolution, Matos says he warned his young colleague that he believed he had been sent to make the arrest so that forces allied with Matos might kill Camilo Cienfuegos. The young revolutionary had become quite popular in the months following the march on Havana, as such, Matos says it was Castro's intent to eliminate any perceived competition. ^[1] . Cienfuegos, however, is recored as having supported the arrest of Matos, which is why he had been sent. Cienfeugos mysteriously disappeared en-route back to Havana after the securing of Matos and his military adjutants in late October 1959. Some people hint at foul play by either Castro or Matos, but most historians agree it was probably an accident.

[edit] Attempt at Counterrevolution

Huber Matos' attempts to resign, and his public attacks on the communist direction in the revolution, were not the only actions he took against Castro. According to Fabian Escalante, chief of a Cuban Counterintelligence unit, it was discovered that Huber Matos - at the time commanding the defence of the wealthy Camaguey province - was organising a counter-revolution with support of the CIA. This was organised by Frank Sturgis, in conjunction with Tony Varona, Carlos Prio, and Manuel Artime (who later led the 'bay of pigs' invasion against Cuba) ^[2]. Huber Matos' support of the Miami-based anti-castro movement, especially Luis Posada Carriles (accused of killing 73 people in a plane bombing in 1976), lend weight to the belief that he supports armed agression against Castro's Cuba. ^[3]

[edit] Sentencing and imprisonment

The same day Matos was arrested, Miami Cuban exile Pedro Díaz, former air force chief of staff under Castro, dropped leaflets into Havana that called for the removal of all Communists from the government. In response, Castro called for a show of hands at a political rally in favor of executing the two dissidents. The crowd responded with "Paredón" ("To the wall.")

Following the rally, Castro called a government meeting to determine Matos's fate. Che and Raúl favored execution, and three ministers who questioned Castro's version of events were immediately replaced by government loyalists. In the end, however, Castro decided against execution, explaining that "I don't want to turn him into a martyr." A trial that began on December 11, 1959, found Matos guilty of "treason and sedition" and sentenced him to twenty years imprisonment, most of which were spent at the Isla de la Juventud, where Castro had been imprisoned in 1953. According to Matos, "prison was a long agony from which I emerged alive because of God's will. I had to go on hunger strikes, mount other types of protests. Terrible. On and off, I spent a total of sixteen years in solitary confinement, constantly being told that I was never going to get out alive, that I had been sentenced to die in prison. They were very cruel, to the fullest extent of the word... I was tortured on several occasions, I was subjected to all kinds of horrors, all kinds, including the puncturing of my genitals. Once during a hunger strike a prison guard tried to crush my stomach with his boot... Terrible things."

Matos was released from prison on October 21, 1979, having served out his full term. He was reunited with his wife and children, who had left Cuba during the 1960s, in Costa Rica. They then moved to Miami where he resides to this day.^[4] He wrote a book about his experiences, Cómo llegó la noche (How the Night Came). The book is available in Spanish and in French (Et la nuit est tombée).