[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 107 (Friday, July 27, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1456-E1457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          26 OF JULY MOVEMENT

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                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 27, 2001

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked another anniversary of 
the tragic events of July 26, 1953, when Fidel Castro, along with a 
band of supporters, attacked a military barracks in eastern Cuba in 
order to make a name for himself, causing the deaths of dozens of 
Cubans in what will doubtless be considered as a national day of 
mourning in Cuban history.
  An acute observer of 20th century Cuban history, long-time journalist 
and writer Jack Skelly, has written a very interesting account of some 
of the tragic circumstances surrounding the 26th of July, 1953, and the 
so called ``26 of July Movement'' . It was published in yesterday's 
Miami Herald and I submit it for the record for the benefit of my 
colleagues and the American people.

               The Men Who Left the 26th of July Movement

                            (by Jack Skelly)

       One more 26th of July--count them. It has been 48 years 
     since Fidel Castro, his brother Raul, 17 men and two women 
     attacked Moncada, the Cuban army barracks in Santiago de 
     Cuba.
       Twenty soldiers were killed. Fidel Castro and five others 
     escaped to the nearby hills, where they soon were captured, 
     tried and sentenced to 15 years each.
       However, in May 1955, they were freed in a general amnesty 
     by the Cuban Congress. Castro then went to Mexico to prepare 
     for the Dec. 2, 1956, invasion of Cuba with 81 men.
       Now once more Castro will be in the center where he will 
     recount in a three -or four-hour speech (if he can endure 
     that long) the glories of that 26th of July and the events 
     that led up to the great victory on Jan. 1, 1959, when the 
     revolution took over from the Batista regime.
       Sadly, Castro will not be able to tell his audience that 
     most of the leaders of the 26th of July movement ``are at my 
     side today.''
       The original 26th of July movement disappeared almost 
     immediately after Castro sold out to the Soviet Union and the 
     Cuban Communist Party.
       The democratic members of the movement who fought side by 
     side with him in the Sierra Maestra mountains and were in the 
     underground in the cities and towns are dead, in jail or in 
     exile.


                           BETRAYED COMRADES

       The following are some of the original members who were 
     double-crossed by Castro:
       *Maj. Sori Marin, author of the original agrarian-reform 
     program, who fought alongside Castro in the mountains, was 
     caught conspiring with other rebel army officers who had 
     fought to restore democracy and freedom to Cuba. He was 
     executed on specific orders of Castro himself several days 
     before the Bay of Pigs invasion, April 17, 1961.
       *Maj. Victor Mora saved Fidel, Raul, Che Guevara and other 
     survivors when they landed from Mexico on Dec. 2, 1956. A 
     Sierra Maestra native, Mora led them around the Cuban Army to 
     a safe haven high up in the mountains.
       After the victory, it didn't take Mora long to realize that 
     he and others had been sold out by Castro. Caught conspiring, 
     Mora was sentenced to 10 years. Once released, he escaped to 
     the United States, where he lived modestly in Little Havana.

[[Page E1457]]

       *Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz flew weapons from Venezuela and Costa 
     Rica to Castro's ``eagle's nest'' in the mountains. After 
     victory, he was named Castro's personal pilot. But soon he 
     complained to Castro that Raul and Guevara were 
     indoctrinating his air force men in Marxism.
       Tipped that Castro had ordered his arrest, Diaz Lanz and 
     his wife, Tania, and brother barely escaped to Miami in a 
     sailboat in June 1959. Weeks later, Diaz Lanz became the 
     first ``26-er'' to testify before a U.S. Senate committee, 
     accusing Castro of selling out the revolution to the Soviet 
     Union.
       *Maj. Huber Matos, a school teacher turned guerrilla 
     fighter, was one of the genuine heroes in the fight against 
     the Cuban army. In October 1959, 10 months after the 
     revolution came to power, Matos sent a letter of resignation 
     to Castro, complaining that communists, who had not lifted a 
     finger to oust the Batista regime, were taking over the 
     revolution.
       Castro ordered a court martial in which Matos was accused 
     of being a ``counterrevolutionary.'' After serving a 20-year 
     sentence, Matos came to Miami, where he has been one of the 
     leaders of the Cuban Forum.
       *Jesus Yanes Pelletier was a sergeant in the Cuban Army 
     assigned to Boniato Prison, where Castro was sent after being 
     sentenced for attacking the Moncada barracks. Yanes Pelletier 
     was ordered to poison Castro's food. He refused, was given a 
     dishonorable discharge and then Joined the 26th of July 
     movement.
       When the revolution arrived, Castro made Yanes Pelletier a 
     captain in charge of his personal guard. Soon Yanes Pelletier 
     became disenchanted with the communists and began conspiring. 
     He was caught and in 1977 was sentenced to 15 years. He 
     refused to leave Cuba and was the vice president of the Cuban 
     Committee for Human Rights before his death last year.
       *Among the saddest cases--and there are hundreds in every 
     city, town and village in Cuba--is that of Mario Chanes de 
     Armas. He had impeccable credentials as a founder of the 
     revolutionary movement with Castro before the attack on the 
     Moncada barracks.
       Chanes de Armas survived the Moncada attack, trained in 
     Mexico, came over on the yacht Gramma and lived to greet 
     Castro in Havana when the conquering heroes arrived on Jan. 
     9, 1959, on top of a U.S. Sherman tank. The movement 
     disappeared after Castro sold out to the Soviet Union and the 
     Communist Party.
       Chanes de Armas could have had any position he wanted in 
     the revolutionary government, but he opted to return to his 
     work in a brewery. For two years he watched his former leader 
     betray their movement. Finally, he spoke against the 
     communists. He was tried as a ``counterrevolutionary,'' and 
     on July 17, 1961, was sentenced to 30 years.
       After spending six years in solitary, he was released 
     exactly 30 years to the date of his imprisonment. In 1993 he 
     was united with his four sisters in Miami.
       Although he doesn't belong to any exile political group, he 
     forms part of a group of former prisoners who travel 
     throughout Latin America talking to heads of states about the 
     reality of Castro's Cuba.

     

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