Tony Cuesta
Tony Cuesta was an anti-Castro Cuban activist.
Life and background
Cuesta was educated at the University of Havana. The anti-Batista political movements had a strong influence in his college life but he later turned his head against the direction taken by the new government towards stricter Soviet-like models that led him to make his decision to flee Cuba. Initially a member of the 26th of July Movement and a close supporter of Fidel Castro, Cuesta in 1960 defected to the United States, and in 1961 was one of the founders of the anti-Communist paramilitary organization Alpha 66. He later set up the guerrilla group "Comandos L" which operated out of Anguilla.
In March 1963 Cuesta's Commando-L fired a canon at the Soviet freighter Baku off the coast of Cuba. The USSR made a formal diplomatic complaint to the U.S. Embassy in protest and on 3 April the Russian ambassador Andrei Gromyko met with US ambassador Foy D. Kohler to complain. This raid and a preceding one on 17 March by Alpha 66 was condemned by the Kennedy administration, considering it provocative and pointless.
Exile leadership and paramilitary activity
Cuesta became one of the most prolific leaders in the anti-Castro movement of exiles, leading Comandos L once in exile and taking part in various paramilitary actions against the Cuban government. In 1966, Cuesta was captured in Cuba. He had been attempting to smuggle men into Cuba, one of whom was Herminio Díaz García, for assassinating Castro. During the mission he was fired upon by a Soviet ship. However, rather than surrender, he attempted to blow his ship up with a hand grenade, as a result of which he lost an eye and an arm. He remained in prison until 1978.
Later life and exile involvement
After his release, he returned to Miami and refounded Comandos L. Tony Cuesta continued to be a leading figure in the politics of exile, giving public statements regarding the activities at the start of the 90s, and scrutinizing the personal losses and unsatisfied struggles of the anti-Castro movement. The unsuccessful mission had caused him to be permanently disabled and the injuries had caused him permanent pain in his eyesight and arm leading to extreme complications in his life after the incident In a declaration of popular opinion in 1992, Cuesta described the exile struggle as a cause carried with both pride and sorrow, confessing the emotional cost of decades of warfare but retaining his faith in a post-Castro future.
Death and personal life
He died in Miami on 2 December 1992 from a heart attack. He was married four times. His death was immensely popular among the Cuban exile community, where his long history of militancy and self-sacrifice turned him into a household name across older generations of anti-Castro activists.