Cuban political prisoner dies

Posted on Sun, Feb. 25, 2007

Cuban political prisoner dies
BY SERGIO BUSTOS
sbustos@MiamiHerald.com

Mario Chanes de Armas, who fought alongside Fidel Castro in the Cuban
revolution only to spend three decades as a political prisoner when he
spoke out against communism, died Saturday at Hialeah Hospital. He was 80.

Chanes de Armas had been in a Hialeah nursing home, but became ill
Saturday and was taken to the hospital, said his sister, Belen Chanes de
Armas.

''For us, he was a very special, special, special man,'' said Belen.
``He died quietly, but was a man who had defended his country.''

Considered one of the founders of the Revolution, Chanes de Armas
survived the Moncada attack, trained in Mexico, came over on the yacht
Gramma and lived to greet Castro in Havana on Jan. 9, 1959, when the
conquering heroes arrived on top of a U.S. Sherman tank.

Instead of joining the revolutionary government, Chanes de Armas chose
to his work in a brewery. Two years later, after watching Castro betray
their movement, he spoke out against communists and was tried as a
counterrevolutionary.''

On July 17, 1961, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, longer than
any other Cuban political prisoner. It included six years in solitary
confinement.

''I watched men get shot, point blank, beaten with bayonets, arbitrarily
pulled out and punished. But we were alone. The world didn't know,'' he
told the Miami Herald in a 1999 interview.

Thirty years to the date of his imprisonment, he was released and
reunited with his four sisters in Miami.

He later traveled to Washington and met with then President Clinton for
20 minutes. Following the meeting, Clinton issued a statement praising
Chanes as ``a living testimony to the unbending will to strive for
liberty and dignity.''

In addition to Belen Chanes de Lopez, of Miami, he is survived by three
other sisters: Mercedes Chanes, of Miami, Aleida Chanes, of Union City,
N.J. and ''Mercedita'' Chanes, of Miami.

Services will be held Monday at the Bernardo Garcia Funeral Home, 4100
N.W. 7th Avenue, Miami. Burial will be Tuesday in Hialeah.

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