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Huber Matos

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Huber Matos (born 1918 in Yara, Cuba) 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 was critical about those in the ruling government which would replace him, particularly as its communist nature became more apparent.

Reservations about Fidel Castro

Though working with Castro to overthrow the government, he was at times skeptical of him, seeing in Castro "despotic tendencies". Following Castro's triumphant ascension to power, Matos was made military governor of Camagüey Province. As a pro-democratic liberal, however, he soon became skeptical of Marxist sympathies shown by prominent revolution figures such as Raúl and Che. 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.'"

Resignation

In July 1959, Castro accused President Manuel Urrutia Lleó of "acts bordering [on] treason" and replaced him with Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, thought to be more loyal. 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 made his final, fateful decision. He 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. 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 Raul 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."

Sentencing and imprisonment

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, "[p]rison 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 in Costa Rica with his wife and children, who had left Cuba in 1963, and moved to Miami.

He wrote a book about his experiences, Como llegó la noche (How the Night Came). The book is available only in Spanish and in French (Et la nuit est tombée).

Source

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