John Suarez reflects on the passing of two Cuban exile icons and leaders in the struggle for a free Cuba during 2013.
Via Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter:
Reflection on the passing of Juan Clark and Antonio Augusto Villarreal
Hope versus despair in a totalitarian contextJuan Clark, PhD. and Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta
The past year has been a tough one for friends of a free Cuba. There have been great losses: the academic, Juan Clark, the comedian, Guillermo Alvarez Guedes, the former chairman of Bacardi, Manuel Jorge Cutillas, the Christian Democrat and intellectual, José Ignacio Rasco, the human rights defender Martha Frayde, and now the former prisoner of conscience Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta. The majority of these Cubans died of natural causes, but two stand out: Juan Clark and Antonio Augusto Villarreal Acosta. Both apparently committed suicide. Cuba shares a dubious distinction with Uruguay as having the highest suicide rates in the Western Hemisphere.
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