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ALPHA 66 HOME OUR HISTORY WINDOW ON CUBA OUR COMMENTS ON THE NEWS EVENTS EDITORIALS ENGLISH ESPAÑOL THE "X FILES" OF CRIME IN COMMUNIST CUBA With the article that follows we start a series on specific crimes committed by the Communist tyranny against the people of Cuba during these 42 years in power. It will not be in chronological order but it will cover precise, clear atrocities committed since 1959. Some of these crimes have been exposed by the media or documented in countless books on the Cuban situation. Some are less known and have never been publicly exposed. We think these barbaric acts have to be brought to people’s attention in a short and concise format so that they are never forgotten. We think that by distributing this information we can help others understand the catastrophe the Cuban people continue to suffer under the Communist system. December 2000 – XF - 3 THE CRUEL DEATH OF WILLIAM MORGAN One thing that has transpired from the beginning of his tenure at the front of the Cuban dictatorship in 1959, is the all consuming hate Fidel Castro has for the American people. The evil spirit of his personality, probably exacerbated by the writings of Adolph Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” which was his favorite reading while an student, plus the influence of Marx and the cruel exercise of power by Lenin and Stalin, were shaping his unreasonable scorn and contempt for this country. A vivid example of this hate was shown in the case of Major William Morgan, when he was condemned to death by a firing squad. William Alexander Morgan was an American, a blond, blue-eyed young man from Ohio, very tough, full of physical strength, who had been in the American army and have had some trouble while participating in the occupation forces in Japan. He happened to be in Havana, when forces that were against Batista attacked the National Palace on March 13, 1957. Later he joined the “II Front of Escambray” guerrillas fighting in the Escambray Mountains, in the central part of Cuba, taking part in battles and ended up with the grade of Major of the Rebel Army and took the city of Cienfuegos days before Batista ran away. Morgan had a particular dislike for the manner in which communism was being introduced by Castro in all the spheres of the new revolutionary government. At the beginning he was involved in a conspiracy that some say he told Castro about it. He always denied that it was his plan, just that he thought that it was too soon to start a new revolution. But he went back to the Escambray Mountains and started to develop a frog farm, traveling constantly from Havana and back to the mountains. He obtained from the American Embassy some 6 page booklets, containing anti-Communist comic style stories, to release them in the towns in the Escambray. But he started to have trouble with Che Guevara and Félix Torres, the leading communist in that area. One of his close associates was the also Major Jesús Carreras Zayas who had had a personal encounter with Che Guevara while fighting in the mountains. Both, Morgan and Carrera, had become obstacles to the forces preparing a take over of the government by communism, and were accused of carrying arms to the Escambray to start an uprising and were therefore condemned to death by a firing squad. But since William Morgan was an American, his death was not going to be easy, he had to be humiliated. Let us read what Paul D. Bethel, says in his book The Losers (1969, page 192): “The final months of Morgan’s life in La Cabaña are vividly portrayed by fellow inmate John Martino in his book, I Was Castro’s Prisoner. The Martino-Morgan conversations throw considerable light on the personality and ambitions of William Morgan. In any event, William Morgan marched to his summary trial, singing: “As the Caissons go Rolling Along.” At 2:30 a.m. one day in February 1961, Fidel and Raul Castro attended his execution by firing squad. As his hands were being tied behind his back, an unidentified voice in the shadows of the lights beamed on Morgan shouted: “Kneel and beg for your life!” Morgan shouted back: “I kneel for no man!” But they used a sharp-shooter, not a firing squad, to kill him. First, a bullet was put through one knee, then one through the other. As Morgan crashed to the ground cursing the Communists, the same unidentified voice from the shadows exulted: “There! You see, we made you kneel!” The rifleman put another bullet through one of Morgan’s shoulders. He took his time putting a bullet through the other, prolonging the agony of his victim. Then a captain walked up to Morgan and emptied a clip from his Tommy gun into his chest. That is how William Morgan died.” Considering that in the presence of Fidel Castro no one else talks, there can be no doubt as to whom the voice in the shadow was. This is a nice portrait of Castro's hate for his country. To those trying to sell him as a revolutionary victim of "Imperialism" let us remind them of the naked nature of this felon. (Sources for this article came from the books "The Losers" by Paul D. Bethel; "Cuba en Guerra" by Enrique Encinosa; "Freedom, A Journal of the Free Cuban" and personal interviews of witnesses of that era.) MLT November 2000 –XF – 2 THE MASSACRE AT “LA CAMPANA” CAMP From the first few days after January 1, 1959 when the revolution against Batista triumphed, many Cubans that had participated in one way or another in that event started to question the leadership of Fidel Castro, his tendency to become the only and absolute power, and his lack of respect of others opinion. His sinister way of disposing of those he considered had been involved in the Batista regime made the revolution look like a pool of blood. As the days progressed, the image of a new dictatorship was being projected. But Castro managed to capture the people’s favor and whoever disagreed with him was in trouble. A new ingredient was becoming clear, slowly Communism was being established as a new form of government. Many who had fought against Batista considered this treason and began to leave the country. Others were jailed for protesting this betrayal. Many others decided to go back to the mountains as guerrilla fighters against this new, in embryo, Communist tyranny. Guerrillas began to organize throughout the island. The Escambray Mountains in the central province of Las Villas became the main natural point of resistance to the new regime. In those mountains guerrillas had done their work against Batista and were less influenced by Castro, who had been doing his part in the Sierra Maestra Mountains on Oriente Province. It was becoming something serious. By the summer of 1960 Castro decided to send thousands of troops to the Escambray Mountains to quell the growing uprising. Persecution was fierce and although the rebels lacked armaments, they heroically resisted. But Castro had learned a lot from Stalinist tactics. He knew that he had to show some kind of victory and for that, names that meant something in the revolutionary forces had to pay with their lives. By the middle of September it was announced that Plinio Prieto and Sinesio Walsch were going to be on trial in Santa Clara, and with them a total of 170 prisoners. With these guerrillas captured, so they said, things in the Escambray Mountains would calm and the rebellion would be over. Who were these men that would have to pay with their lives in order for Castro to show other revolutionaries the price they would have to pay in rebelling against his Communist system? The third man, Capt. Sinesio Walsh Rios, was a formidable guerrilla fighter in charge of various rebel groups in the mountains. He had been captured with several of his men, with almost no ammunition, close to “Nuevo Mundo” where he had his camp. All these men had succumbed to Castro’s superior numerical force that were well trained and very well equipped. To these three warriors were added Angel B. Rodriguez del Sol who had been Assistant to Major Andrés Nazario Sargén in the previous war against Batista in the Escambray Mountains and José Palomino Colón, a respected member of the Constitutional Army before the revolution. Capt. Porfirio Remberto Ramirez Ruiz was one. A fighter in the Escambray against the Batista forces; a tall, strong, young man, raised in a farm near Santa Clara, President of the student body of the Central University “Marta Abreu” in Las Villas Province. He was captured at the beginning of October, close to “Pico Tuerto” in the mountains, after fighting hunger and thirst and with no more ammunition. (Click on the photo to view it on a larger size). Mayor Plinio Prieto Ruiz was another. He also fought against Batista’s regime, was very respected in the forces of the revolution and had been going back and forth to the United States trying to supply arms to the new guerrilla forces. A teacher by profession who had come to take charge of the fighting in the Escambray, he was captured in the town of Cumanayagua. (Click on the photo to view it on a larger size). The trial was scheduled to be held at the “Libertad” Theater in the Military Camp “Leoncio Vidal” in Santa Clara on October 12, 1960. Members of Castro’s Rebel Army, who had absolutely no legal knowledge, formed the Court. Juan Escalona, a member of the Communist Party, was the prosecutor. By the end of the day they told the family members of the accused that the sentence would be decided the next day. But by nine o’clock at night that same 12th day of October in the military camp of “La Campana” close to Manicaragua, on the outskirts of the Escambray Mountains, they were positioning cars and army trucks that would provide the light necessary to comply with a sentence that had not yet been officially decided and could not be disputed because it had come directly from Castro in Havana. The firing squad that executed these five patriots did not use rifles. They used Czech-made machine-guns, making a bloody massacre of their bodies. Those who were present, such as father Olegario de Cifuentes, a priest from “La Pastora Church” in Santa Clara, related afterward that as the killing was done, the executioners were paralyzed and no one moved to get close to the victims. It was as if they felt the horror of what they had done. The rebellion was not over as Castro had said. The Escambray Mountains remained a stronghold for freedom for five more years until 1965. (Sources for this article came from the books, CUBA EN GUERRA by Enrique Encinosa and DIARIO DE UNA TRAICION by Leovigildo Ruiz. Other sources include BizLand.com, an article by Laida Arcia Carro, www.cubamemorial.org,