Gutierrez Menoyo, Eloy

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo is one of the six sons of the prominent Spanish socialist Carlos Gutierrez. Eloy's brother - Jose Antonio - died in a battle with the Francoists ^[1] . Another brother, Carlos, emigrated to France, then participated in the Second World War as part of the US Army . In 1946, the family moved to Cuba .

The Gutierrez Menoyo brothers actively joined the battle against the Batista regime . They participated in the attack on the presidential palace on March 13, 1957 . Carlos Gutierrez Menoyo died in a shootout. Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo became one of the Havana leaders of the Revolutionary Directorate on March 13 . In November 1957, he led a guerrilla movement in the mountains of Escambray . The rebel Manifesto of Escambray proclaimed an armed struggle for democracy and social justice. Since February 1958 , Menoyo was joined by his active minded - American revolutionary William Alexander Morgan ^[2] . At the same time, already at that time the tension in relations between Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo and Che Guevara and Raul Castro , the main spokesmen for the pro-communist tendency, was outlined.

The rebel squads of Escambray organized themselves into the "Second National Front of Escambray" - Frente Nacional (Escambray) . Attempts by government forces to eliminate the escambray rebellion have failed. The actions of the National Front markedly accelerated the advance of the rebels towards Havana. On January 1, 1959, revolutionary troops entered the Cuban capital.

Spaniard Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo was one of three foreigners - along with Argentinean Che Guevara and American Morgan - who received the highest rank of major in the Cuban revolutionary army .

After the victory of the revolution, Menoyo quickly came into conflict with the ruling group of brothers Castro and Che Guevara. Already at the end of 1959, he again joined the rebel movement in Escambray under the slogans of the struggle against the dictatorship, now communist . In January 1961 he illegally emigrated to the United States , spent several months under American arrest in Texas . At the end of the year he became one of the founders of the founders of the anti-communist militant organization Alpha 66 .

By that time, the Cuban regime had finally taken on a totalitarian character in the type of “real socialism”. The execution of comrade Morgan became an important milestone for Menoyo. Gutierrez Menoyo set the task of the armed overthrow of the new dictatorship. However, his views remained demosocialist .

Alpha 66 entered into operational contact with the rebels of Escambray, inflicted a number of attacks on objects of the Castro regime and its Soviet allies ^[3] . For these actions, Gutierrez Menoyo was arrested by the American authorities. At the end of 1964, he attempted to implement the Omega military plan by landing in Cuba with an armed detachment. However, the mass struggle was unsuccessful. In January 1965, the detachment was defeated, Menoyo was captured and taken to Fidel Castro.

Eloy, I knew you'd be back.
Fidel Castro

After a half-hour trial, Menoyo was sentenced to death. He was forced to admit the strength of the established regime, his ties with the United States and counter-revolutionary emigration ^[4] . The death penalty was replaced by a 30-year prison sentence.

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo spent almost 22 years in prison. He defiantly refused to comply with the humiliating requirements of the prison regime ^[5] , was subjected to severe punishment and beatings for this. In 1970, he received an additional 25-year sentence on charges of creating a prison underground organization.

In 1978, the US administration of Jimmy Carter attempted a dialogue with the Castro government. Along with other issues, the topic of the release of political prisoners, including Gutierrez Menoyo, was raised. Representatives of the Socialist International , Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez , Pope John Paul II also petitioned for his release. Menoyo transmitted through his daughter records of Cuban prisons, which were published in Spain by Manuel Fraga Iribarne . In 1984, Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González called on Castro to release Menoyo. Castro refused:

We cannot free him. In two weeks, he will be in Miami at the head of Alpha 66.

However, increasing international pressure forced the Cuban authorities to release Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo on December 20, 1986 . He went to Spain, then arrived in Miami , where on March 14, 1987 he was greeted as a hero by a 10,000-strong demonstration of the Cuban diaspora ^[6] .

Over the years of imprisonment, Gutierrez Menoyo has undergone a serious evolution. He became a supporter of dialogue with the Cuban regime. The Cambio Cubano ( Cuban Change ) organization he created advocated for Fidel Castro’s peaceful push for democratic reform. In June 1995, Menoyo visited Havana and met with Castro, who thirty years earlier had personally promised to shoot him (a year earlier his daughter and son-in-law had such a meeting) ^[7] .

We suggest that Fidel Castro himself begin the process of change. That would be the perfect close of his page in history.
Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo ^[8]

The Cuban authorities widely used this event for propaganda purposes. The radical anti-Castro emigration was outraged by the “betrayal” of the moderate Cambio Cubano and its leader ^[9] .

In 2003, Gutierrez Menoyo arrived in Havana without official permission. He stated that he intends to engage in political activities and contribute to the democratization of the country. Formally, his stay in Cuba was illegal (including from the point of view of the United States ^[10] ), but he was not subjected to harassment. However, the authorities took care of its strict political isolation.

The limited reforms of Raul Castro ^[11] were perceived by Gutierrez Menoyo as completely insufficient, since they did not provide for political democratization ^[12] . He continued to advocate civil opposition to the communist regime , but only in non-violent forms and in conjunction with dialogue.

The death of Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo ^{[13] was} officially ignored by the official Cuban media ^[14] .

Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, a hereditary democratic socialist , was an implacable enemy of any dictatorship. The fight with Castro was for him a continuation of the fight with Batista. It is symbolic that he started the anti-communist armed resistance in the same Escambray, where a year earlier he waged an armed struggle against the authoritarian regime.

He took a conciliatory position, including under the influence of perestroika in the USSR , which showed the possibility of peaceful democratization and the transformation of communism. However, he did not take into account the particularities of the Castro regime, which from the same events concluded that the liberalization of state order was inadmissible.

Ethical views unusual for revolutionary politicians played a significant role in the evolution of Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo.

Faced with wild, barbaric politics, sooner or later you will realize that you yourself must abandon these methods. You need to leave your hatred first. Otherwise, it will destroy you.
Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo ^[15]

• Rafael del Pino