In a little more than a week, a fourth general of the Castro dictatorship has mysteriously died. Seems being a general in communist Cuba nowadays can be as dangerous and deadly as being a peaceful protestor.
Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):
Cuban Reserve general Manuel Lastres Pacheco dies, the fourth general in a week
The Cuban Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) has announced the death in Cuba of Reserve General Manuel Eduardo Lastres Pacheco, the fourth high-ranking officer who has passed away in a little more than a week.
According to the announcement read live on Cuban Television’s “News at Noon,” the deceased, who hailed from Yara in Granma, joined Fidel Castro’s guerrilla army in 1957 and was under the command of Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Later, he was part of the Antonio Maceo #2 Column commanded by Camilo Cienfuegos, which carried out the invasion of eastern Cuba.
After 1959, he was a battalion chief in the so-called battle against the bandits, brigade commander, infantry division, and the Territorial Militia Troops as well as a Cuban troop commander in Angola.
The official announcement did not provide the age of the military officer or the cause of death. It was limited to announcing that “his cadaver has been cremated and his ashes will be put in a family gravesite on a date to be announced.”
Continue reading (in Spanish) HERE.
Does he look military to you? What he does look like is what Cubans used to call a “guajiro macho,” which more or less translates as a country bumpkin. Well, at least they didn’t put more than one star on him.
I just read there’s a fifth one!
There’s a lot of “historical” old farts that are bound to kick the bucket sooner rather than later. Younger military types dying unexpectedly would be more significant. Let’s see how long “General” Castro sticks around, not to mention his geriatric henchmen.