Prayer Service Held For Fmr. Cuban Revolution Leader Huber Matos

Prayer Service Held For Fmr. Cuban Revolution Leader Huber Matos
March 2, 2014 11:22 PM
Maggie Newland

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -Hundreds attended a visitation and prayer service
Sunday for Huber Matos Benitez.
Matos was a key leader in the late 1950′s Cuban Revolution to overthrow
Fulgencio Batista, but later became an outspoken opponent of Fidel
Castro. He died Thursday, February 27th, at the age of 95.
Matos dreamed of a free and democratic Cuba, and for much of his life he
fought to make that dream a reality.
Son, Rogelio Matos told CBS4′s Maggie Newland, "We have a legacy in the
family – his love, his teaching, good dad, strong firm man, a
disciplined man - but we have to learn in the family to share him first
with the Cuban people and now with everyone, learn to share him because
he belongs to Cuba."
Matos had originally joined with Castro in 1958 in hopes the revolution
would help bring democracy to the country. He rose as high as third in
command of Castro's forces.
However, Matos quickly soured on the Castro government for fear the new
Cuban leader was steering the country toward Communism. He was arrested
several months after the revolution and convicted of treason.
"Twenty years he was in prison. I grew up, my siblings grew up, thinking
that we would never see him again," said Rogelio Matos.
"When I got caught in the political system in Cuba in 1966, I got to
really know him because he was already inside the system," said Eugenio
Zaldivar who spoke to Matos often while both were political prisoners.
Zaldivar described Matos like this: "Humble, very humble person,very
knowledgeable used to read a lot but most of all very humble and Cuba
loved Cuba above everything."
After his release, Matos came to Miami and helped lead Cuba
Independiente and Democracia, one of the many anti-Castro groups in
South Florida.
"Today in Cuba, young people, a brand new generation who weren't even
born when these events were taking place 50 years ago, look at my father
as the man who spoke the truth the man who represented the aspirations
of the Cuban people," said Matos.
His son says Huber Matos continued the fight for freedom in Cuba even
from his hospital room on the day he died.
"They called him from Cuba. A bunch of Cuban dissidents called him and
they sang the national anthem to him and he was with them. He spoke to
them. He said the struggle continues."

Source: Prayer Service Held For Fmr. Cuban Revolution Leader Huber Matos
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