The Castro regime condemns Armando Sosa, but celebrates Fidel Castro for doing the same thing in the struggle against Fulgencio Batista.
Political prisoner Armando Sosa Fortuny was born on March 5, 1943 and died on October 28, 2019 at the Amalia Simoni provincial hospital in Camagüey, as confirmed by relatives and activists. Sosa Fortuny spent 43 of his 76 years in Cuban prisons.
Sosa Fortuny was jailed twice for fighting for the freedom of Cuba. His first sentence was served from 1960 to 1974, according to a report from El Nuevo Herald. (Other sources place his release date as 1978.)
According to 14ymedio, Armando Sosa left Cuba clandestinely at age 18 for the United States. In October 1960 he returned with the intention of overthrowing the dictatorship, at which time one of his companions died in combat and ten others were shot by firing squad, including three Americans.
After being released, he came into exile in the United States but did not give up his struggle to see a free, democratic and prosperous Cuba.
On October 15, 1994 Armando Sosa Fortuny returned to the island, along the coast of Caibarién, Villa Clara, with Lázaro González Caraballo, Pedro Guisao Peña, José Ramón Falcón Gómez, Jesús Manuel Rojas Pineda, Miguel Díaz Bouza and Humberto Real Suárez to continue fighting for freedom. They belonged to the National Unity Party (PUND) a militant organization.Their plan was to establish themselves in the Escambray mountains, to create guerrilla groups and carry out military actions to overthrow the Castro dictatorship. Following their clandestine landing he was captured, arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The Cuban dictatorship called him a "terrorist". One of the members of this group, Humberto Real was accused of killing Arcilio Dionisio Rodríguez García.
Press accounts identified Mr. Rodríguez García as a police man or guard.
Armando Sosa Fortuny was not an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience because like Fidel Castro he took up arms against a dictator in an armed assault that failed then was imprisoned, left for exile and returned in an armed incursion that was also crushed by forces of the dictatorship.
The Castro regime condemns these actions carried out by Mr. Sosa Fortuny, but celebrates the same kinds of actions carried out by Fidel Castro on July 26, 1953, and on December 2, 1956 but on a larger scale with a greater loss of life.
In the early morning hours of July 26, 1953 a group of approximately 150 young Cubans led by Fidel Castro assaulted the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Approximately, 18 pro-government officials were killed and 28 wounded in the attack. 27 rebels were killed and 11 wounded. 51 of the surviving 99 rebels were placed on trial. It was a failed coup. Fidel Castro turned himself in after seeking guarantees for his safety and was also put on trial. He was sentenced to a fifteen year prison sentence, but was pardoned after 22 months, and went into exile in Mexico. Castro raised money in Miami, and plotted his return to Cuba.
On December 2, 1956 Castro and 81 others land in Cuba on the yacht “Granma.” Most were killed by Batista's troops, but 12 survived, including Castro, his brother Raul Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. They regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountains where they launched their guerrilla war.
There are some differences between Sosa Fortuny and Castro that need to be highlighted. First Armando Sosa Fortuny spent fourteen years in prison and was not pardoned, like Fidel Castro was. Secondly, when he returned to Cuba in 1994 Armando Sosa was captured and spent another 25 years in prison and died while in custody.
Lastly, there are two more fundamental differences between Armando Sosa Fortuny and Fidel Castro. Armando Sosa did not seek to become dictator of Cuba, and he confronted a much more effective, brutal and totalitarian dictatorship constructed by Fidel Castro than the authoritarian dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista faced by the young guerrillas in the 1950s.
Violent resistance by an internal indigenous movement has a much lower chance of success than a nonviolent one. University Academics Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth in their 2008 study "Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic on Nonviolent Conflict" compared the outcomes of 323 nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006. They found that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with just under half that at 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns. Finally there study also suggests “that nonviolent campaigns are more likely than violent campaigns to succeed in the face of brutal repression.”
The sad lesson of Cuba is that violent resistance succeeded in overthrowing Fulgencio Batista's authoritarian dictatorship in 1959 and replaced it with a far more cruel and brutal totalitarian dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Armed resistance failed to overthrow the Castro regime, and many brave men like Armando Sosa Fortuny were killed or jailed for decades under inhumane conditions without access to the International Red Cross.
Armando Sosa Fortuny, Requiescat in pace
Political prisoner Armando Sosa Fortuny was born on March 5, 1943 and died on October 28, 2019 at the Amalia Simoni provincial hospital in Camagüey, as confirmed by relatives and activists. Sosa Fortuny spent 43 of his 76 years in Cuban prisons.
Sosa Fortuny was jailed twice for fighting for the freedom of Cuba. His first sentence was served from 1960 to 1974, according to a report from El Nuevo Herald. (Other sources place his release date as 1978.)
According to 14ymedio, Armando Sosa left Cuba clandestinely at age 18 for the United States. In October 1960 he returned with the intention of overthrowing the dictatorship, at which time one of his companions died in combat and ten others were shot by firing squad, including three Americans.
After being released, he came into exile in the United States but did not give up his struggle to see a free, democratic and prosperous Cuba.
On October 15, 1994 Armando Sosa Fortuny returned to the island, along the coast of Caibarién, Villa Clara, with Lázaro González Caraballo, Pedro Guisao Peña, José Ramón Falcón Gómez, Jesús Manuel Rojas Pineda, Miguel Díaz Bouza and Humberto Real Suárez to continue fighting for freedom. They belonged to the National Unity Party (PUND) a militant organization.Their plan was to establish themselves in the Escambray mountains, to create guerrilla groups and carry out military actions to overthrow the Castro dictatorship. Following their clandestine landing he was captured, arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The Cuban dictatorship called him a "terrorist". One of the members of this group, Humberto Real was accused of killing Arcilio Dionisio Rodríguez García.
Press accounts identified Mr. Rodríguez García as a police man or guard.
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| Humberto Real Suarez: Then and now |
The Castro regime condemns these actions carried out by Mr. Sosa Fortuny, but celebrates the same kinds of actions carried out by Fidel Castro on July 26, 1953, and on December 2, 1956 but on a larger scale with a greater loss of life.
In the early morning hours of July 26, 1953 a group of approximately 150 young Cubans led by Fidel Castro assaulted the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Approximately, 18 pro-government officials were killed and 28 wounded in the attack. 27 rebels were killed and 11 wounded. 51 of the surviving 99 rebels were placed on trial. It was a failed coup. Fidel Castro turned himself in after seeking guarantees for his safety and was also put on trial. He was sentenced to a fifteen year prison sentence, but was pardoned after 22 months, and went into exile in Mexico. Castro raised money in Miami, and plotted his return to Cuba.
On December 2, 1956 Castro and 81 others land in Cuba on the yacht “Granma.” Most were killed by Batista's troops, but 12 survived, including Castro, his brother Raul Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara. They regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountains where they launched their guerrilla war.
There are some differences between Sosa Fortuny and Castro that need to be highlighted. First Armando Sosa Fortuny spent fourteen years in prison and was not pardoned, like Fidel Castro was. Secondly, when he returned to Cuba in 1994 Armando Sosa was captured and spent another 25 years in prison and died while in custody.
Lastly, there are two more fundamental differences between Armando Sosa Fortuny and Fidel Castro. Armando Sosa did not seek to become dictator of Cuba, and he confronted a much more effective, brutal and totalitarian dictatorship constructed by Fidel Castro than the authoritarian dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista faced by the young guerrillas in the 1950s.
Violent resistance by an internal indigenous movement has a much lower chance of success than a nonviolent one. University Academics Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth in their 2008 study "Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic on Nonviolent Conflict" compared the outcomes of 323 nonviolent and violent resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006. They found that major nonviolent campaigns have achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with just under half that at 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns. Finally there study also suggests “that nonviolent campaigns are more likely than violent campaigns to succeed in the face of brutal repression.”
The sad lesson of Cuba is that violent resistance succeeded in overthrowing Fulgencio Batista's authoritarian dictatorship in 1959 and replaced it with a far more cruel and brutal totalitarian dictatorship of Fidel Castro. Armed resistance failed to overthrow the Castro regime, and many brave men like Armando Sosa Fortuny were killed or jailed for decades under inhumane conditions without access to the International Red Cross.
Armando Sosa Fortuny, Requiescat in pace
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