Arnaldo Ochoa

Arnaldo Tomás Ochoa Sánchez (1930 – July 13, 1989) was a Cuban general who was executed by the government of Fidel Castro after being found guilty of a variety of crimes including drug smuggling and treason.

Career

Ever since its creation, he was part of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement, and by March 1957 he had joined Castro's guerrilla army in the Sierra Maestra, fighting against dictator Fulgencio Batista. Ochoa played a major role in the fall of Santa Clara, becoming a close friend of Raúl Castro. Ochoa is said to have been the only survivor of the Camilo Cienfuegos loyalists sent on a doomed expedition against the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1959.Hernández, Félix José (accessed 10-22-07) Fidel Castro: la Infancia de un Jefe, Consejo Militar Cubano Americano. "Franqui narra como después de la muerte de Camilo, su tropa fue enviada a 'liberar' a la República Dominicana, osea, a una muerte segura. Sus oficiales de la Sierra pasaron a ocupar puestos de segunda categoría. ¡El único que se salvó en aquel momento fue ... Arnaldo Ochoa!"

He also fought against Brigade 2506 in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. E. Bovo, the Curator of the Bay of Pigs Museum, claims that he was not a commander, rather that he served under ' El Gallego' José Ramón Fernández, a former officer under the Batista government.

In 1965 he became a member of the Communist Party of Cuba. Ochoa was a member of the Party's Central Committee for more than twenty years. He attended the War College in Matanzas, Cuba, and was later sent to the Frunze Academy in the Soviet Union. In 1966 Ochoa with the Venezuelan guerrilla commander Luben Petkoff, took a boat to the shores of Falcón, Venezuela, one of his most secretive expedition. Along with 15 other Cuban military was sent by Castro to strengthen Douglas Bravo guerrillas fighting the government of Raúl Leoni that ended in a major strategic loss at large rebel cost.

Between 1967 and 1969, he trained rebels in the Congo. In 1975, Ochoa was sent to fight in a critical campaign against the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in Luanda, Angola, where he won the respect of both Soviet and Cuban commanders. In 1977 he was named commander of Cuban Expeditionary Forces in Ethiopia under the command of Soviet General Petrov. His successes during the Ogaden War impressed the Soviet commanders in the field.

By 1980, Ochoa was widely considered a great internationalist, and was awarded the title "Hero of the Revolution" by Fidel Castro in 1984. Within the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, Ochoa was known as Castro's top narcotics dealer.

Arrest and execution

Five years later, Ochoa was chosen by Defense Minister Raúl Castro to become the head of Cuba's Western Army. Since this branch of the military protects Cuba's capital city, Havana officials who were engaged in even more serious crimes: taking pay-offs from South American drug-traffickers, including Pablo Escobar and General Manuel Noriega in exchange for letting them use Cuban territorial waters for drug drops and pick-ups. General Raúl Castro, who was very close to Ochoa personally, later said he pleaded with Ochoa on a number of occasions to come clean, reveal everything, so they could move forward. When Ochoa refused to cooperate, on June 12, the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces announced his arrest and investigation for serious acts of corruption, dishonest use of economic resources, and abetting drug trafficking.

At dawn on July 13, 1989, Ochoa was executed by a firing squad along with three senior officers of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Ministry of the Interior (MININT), after a military court convicted them of drug smuggling and treason. Later allegations from a former Castro bodyguard claimed that Ochoa was executed, and Interior Minister Jose Abrantes sentenced to a 20-year prison term, allegedly to cover up the Castro brothers' high-up involvement in the drug smuggling trade.

Notes

External links

Cuban Armed Forces Review (No relation to Cuban Armed Forces) page on Ochoa
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Foro Militar General (Cuban military forum)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochoa, Arnaldo
1930 births
1989 deaths
People from Cacocum
Cuban people of Basque descent
Communist Party of Cuba politicians
Cuban drug traffickers
Cuban generals
People of the Cuban Revolution
Cuban military personnel of the Angolan Civil War
Executed communists
Executed military leaders
Frunze Military Academy alumni
20th-century executions for treason
People executed for drug offences
People executed for treason against Cuba
People executed by Cuba by firing squad
Executed Cuban people
20th-century executions by Cuba