Note on Cubana de Aviación's May 2018 disaster
Cubana de Aviación, owned by the Cuban State, has yet to provide compensation for the May 2018 crash that took 112 lives and left one young woman, the sole survivor, with multiple and grave injuries. Many young orphans and other devastated families await badly needed support in a country where scarcity and hardship are a way of life for most of the population.
See our report of June 2018
"Cuba’s commercial aviation crisis and its record of air disasters."
June profiles and updated numbers of documented cases for the Castro regime: 1/1/1959 – 6/ 28/2019Cuba Archive brings to
Facebook and
Twitter selected case profiles on their anniversary of death or disappearance. All have an individual record in our
database with all the case details including sources of the information. The victims span a wide range of time and cause, denoting the magnitude of the loss of life stemming from the Cuban revolution.
This work disseminates factual information to advance freedom in Cuba, preserve historical memory, and honor the victims. It is made public to support human rights’ advocacy and for educational purposes.
Below are a few cases for June representing different years and causes for the Castro regime, January 1, 1959 to present followed by updated numbers of similar cases.
June 13, 2017.
Dr. Teresa Castillo Soto, age 27, a Cuban doctor serving in Venezuela as part of an "internationalist" medical mission, fell, was pushed or jumped (committing suicide) from the 8th floor of a building in the residential complex where she lived at the military base Fort Tiuna n Caracas. Mysterious circumstances surround her death. A number of Cuban officials refused local police attempts to conduct the forensic examination. On October 24, 2013,
Alexander Góngora,age 35, the finance manager of the Cuban medical mission to Venezuela had died mysteriously after falling from the 4th floor of the building where he lived. Apparently, he had no personal problems to explain his suicide and had been recently robbed of money he carried for the business of the Cuban medical mission. Foul play was suspected.
Documented deaths of Cuban internationalist civilians: 18.
Many more cases, especially dozens of victims of crime in
Venezuela, are not documented for lack of sufficient information.
On the human cost of one of Cuba’s “internationalist missions,” see Part II of our
report on Angola, where at least 10,000 Cubans
and up to 500,000 Angolans reportedly died.
June 9, 1964.
Fidel Fundora Pérez, age 35, died, allegedly by hanging, at the G-2 (State Security) headquarters at Villa Marista, Havana. A former member of the anti-Batista group 26th of July Movement, led by Fidel Castro, he had grown disenchanted with the Castro regime and joined a resistance group. A car mechanic, Fundora was arrested while at work and his family was not told where he had been taken. They looked for him for a week at police and military installations to no avail. When his wife went to inquire at Villa Marista, she fainted when the officer turned to another and said, "Fidel Fundora, isn’t that the guy who hanged himself last night?" He was buried in a common grave. Years later, the doctor at the morgue who handled his body told the family that he had been instructed not to do an autopsy and that the body had many bruises and contusions. Fundora left a wife and 5 year-old daughter. They remained in Cuba under the tutelage of her maternal grandfather, who supported the revolutionary government and was suspected of having turned him in. The girl was raised to believe her father had been a traitor and was kept from contact with her father´s family, who had left for exile.
June 5, 2008.
Fiss Casa Fábrega, age 35, allegedly committed suicide by hanging at Cerámica Roja high security prison in Camagüey, where he was kept in isolation. The harsh conditions of the punishment cells can drive some prisoners to suicidal thoughts, however, prisoners in isolation lack the means to hang themselves, as they are kept naked or in underwear.
Documented cases of deaths in custody (suicides, extrajudicial
killings, medical negligence, hunger strikes, etc.): 1,822.
June 1, 1964.
Alberto Fernández Medrano,
Marcelino Martínez Tapia, age 59, and
Manuel Paradela Gómez, age 44 (photo), executed by firing squad in Camagüey, accused of spying for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The three were tried 52 days after their arrest and taken from their trial directly to their execution. The families were able to find and retrieve the bodies from a common grave and, upon examination, it was evident that their blood had been drained before the execution; this practice was reported throughout the island in the early 1960s, as the Cuban government has started to export blood products. Fernández Medrano and Martínez Tapia were lawyers while Paradela Gómez owned a truck company.
Documented executions by firing squad: 3,042Documented executions by firing squad with prior blood extraction: 16.*See our
report "Forcible blood extraction of political prisoners."
June 22, 1964.
Julio Carretero Escajadillo was executed by firing squad at La Cabaña Fortress prison, Havana, with at least ten other guerrilla leaders of the insurgency against the Castro regime led by small farmers. Carretero was Commander-in-Chief of all Escambray guerrillas and had been captured after his location was betrayed by an informer. The men sang the Cuban national anthem at their execution. Cuba had passed a law allowing the execution of the rebels upon capture, precluding trials.
Documented deaths to date from anti-Castro resistance and insurgency: 1,734.
Batista period investigation
Coming soon! Findings of our comprehensive investigation on the insurrectionary phase of the Cuban revolution (1952-1958) will soon be published. Stay tuned.
Cuba’s Venezuela intervention
Coming soon! Our book on Cuba’s intervention in Venezuela should be published shortly and available in Amazon. Stay tuned.
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