El Cuate

Mexico City, Apr 8 (RHC) The death of El Cuate, as Fidel Castro baptized Antonio del Conde during the preparation in Mexico for the expedition for the armed struggle against the Batista dictatorship, put the Cuban people in mourning yesterday.

His odyssey to get a boat that would allow the transfer to the eastern Cuban coast of 82 people who would start as combatants to liberate the homeland from its oppressors, is well described in the book that the Cuate himself wrote in 2005 and was subsequently reproduced in several editions more.

But he was also the man -at that time a small businessman- who made available to Fidel Castro the weapons he sold in his gun shop in Mexico City, where in June 1955 he met the young exile, exaggeratedly convincing in his arguments, whose friendship and fidelity trapped him until his unfortunate death.

El Cuate became a regular at the house at Amparán 49, near the Monument to the Revolution, where everything was forged, and at the gatherings at Café Habana, a few blocks from there, between “tortas con todo” (bread with everything) later converted, to this day, into “Cuban cakes”, the richest according to most users.

For Fidel El Cuate became essential until the departure of Granma, one of the most important technical collaborators that the Commander in Chief had in Mexico.

El Cuate describes the Granma and says it was a 63-foot sports yacht. It belonged to a married couple who semi-abandoned it due to the damage caused by a hurricane.

El Cuate was not expeditionary, he remained in Mexico and dedicated himself to sending weapons to the Sierra Maestra that he bought in the United States in risky operations and with the police behind him permanently.  He was never charged even though they arrested him twice in the United States. The first time he got bail, and the second time in Texas, the Cuban Revolution had already triumphed, but he was imprisoned for more than 11 months.

His death, although it was known that he was ill due to a deterioration of his health due to age, surprises and fills the Cuban people with great sadness, who consider him one the heroes and martyrs of the Revolution organized, directed, and defended by the undefeated Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro. (Source: PL)