Huber Matos Dead: Ex-Cuban Revolutionary's Last Words Were 'Long Live Free Cuba'

The ex commander of the Cuban revolution, Huber Matos, has passed away early on Thursday morning in Miami, his family confirmed. He was 95 years old. Matos was one fo the main leaders of the Cuban revolution until 1959 when he was arrested for supposed crimes of sedition. He was condemned to 20 years in prison, which he served in full. Following his release, he was exiled to Costa Rica in 1979. He later moved to the United States and settled in Miami.

Huber Matos' family revealed his last wishes in a letter he wrote just before he died: “I want to make my trip back to Cuba from the very land whose people always displayed solidarity and affection toward me,” Matos wrote in his last letter, however, he would not go to Cuba until it is a free country. “I want to rest in Costa Rican soil until Cuba is free and from there go to Yara, to join my mother and reunited with my father and the Cuban people.”

Matos, originally a schoolteacher, joined the Castro revolution against Fulgencio Batista and helped provide weapons to rebels by obtaining arms from abroad. However, in later years he also represented a certain disillusionment many felt with Castro who in fact ennacte precisely the dictatorship that they were fighting. On Wednesday, Matos took calls from supporters in Cuba, including some who sang the national anthem over the phone. The statement from his family finished saying: “His last words were ‘The struggle continues, long live a free Cuba’ ”