Prominent Cuban Dissident, Gustavo Arcos, Is Dead At 79
Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter Havana, Cuba (AHN) - Gustavo Arcos, a prominent Cuban dissident, has reportedly died from pneumonia. He was 79. Arcos fought with President Fidel Castro in the battle that started the 1959 revolution. However, he eventually changed his views, believing the government was too authoritarian. He was imprisoned for his counter-revolutionary efforts. Arcos founded the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, one of the first major dissident groups in the country. Activist Carlos Menendez tells The Associated Press, "He was one of the most respected people in the human rights movement in Cuba." Arcos was partially paralyzed when he was shot in the hip during an attack on the Moncada barracks, led by Castro in 1953. The revolutionaries successfully overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista, and took power of the island nation. Arcos then became Cuba's ambassador to Belgium in 1959. He apparently came to regret the revolution had turned toward communism. He was imprisoned multiple times, once for attempting to leave the country.
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