Former Cuban political prisoner Antonio Villareal takes his own life in exile

Antonio Villareal may not have died in Cuba directly at the hands of the Castro dictatorship, but Cuba’s tyrannical regime bears full responsibility for the death of yet another brave and courageous freedom fighter.

May he rest in peace…

Via Uncommon Sense:

Castro dictatorship claims the life of former political prisoner Antonio Villarreal

AVAntonio Villarreal, left, and his son Tony, in November 2009 photograph taken clandestinely while Villarreal was a political prisoner in the La Pendiente prison in Villa Clara, Cuba. (Courtesy photo via Diario de las Americas.)

Between the “black spring” of 2003 when the Castro dictatorship imprisoned political activist Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta and 2010 when it forced him into overseas exile, the Castro dictatorship attempted to torture Villarreal to death.

On Saturday, in a Miami apartment, the regime finally succeeded.

Haunted by the memories of the tortures and other abuses he suffered in the Castro gulag, including a year alone in a darkened punishment cell, Villarreal apparently took his own life with an overdose of drugs. He was 63.

Miami police found his body in his apartment in Little Havana. His son Tony told Diario de las Americas that Villarreal was lying on his bed, with a Cuban flag, images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre and his prison uniform.

“The history of my father was like a horror movie,” Tony Villarreal told Cafe Fuerte.  “He felt alone, abandoned by all. He was under psychiatric treatment, but I never thought he was going to take such a radical decision.”

Villarreal, an activist with the Christian Liberation Movement headed by the late Oswaldo Paya, was arrested during the “black spring” crackdown and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

He was first sent to the Boniato prison in Santiago de Cuba, where he spent a year in a punishment cell, and then to the La Pendiente prison in Santa Clara.

In July 2010,and suffering from kidney ailments, hypertension and psychiatric disorders, he was one of the first of the Group of 75 prisoners released from jail under a deal arranged by Cuba, Spain and the Catholic Church, and forced into exile in Spain.

A year later, he moved with his wife and daughter to Miami, where life was no easier. Unable to work, he was on disability, and about a year ago he separated from his wife.

“Prison ended my life,” Villarreal said in a 2011 interview.

His killer was the Castro dictatorship.

Continue reading HERE.

1 thought on “Former Cuban political prisoner Antonio Villareal takes his own life in exile”

  1. It is quite possible to do serious harm even without ever jailing someone or so much as laying a hand on them physically. Castro, Inc. has ruined many lives quietly and silently, or certainly inconspicuously, like a slow-acting poison that leaves no trace. The number of such lives, and the extent of the damage, will never be fully known, and justice will never be done in this world–not even close. Enough, of course, IS known, and has been for decades, but the world simply doesn’t care, and won’t. Cubans simply fucked up very, VERY badly, and the price has been very, VERY high.

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