1963: Four Cubans as CIA spies
November 14th, 2010 Headsman
On this date in 1963, the Cuban government shot four of its citizens as “counterrevolutionaries” and CIA spies — capping a week that had seen 13 such executions in all at Havana’s Cabana Fortress.
This date’s batch consisted of (per the Nov. 15, 1963 New York Times) Argimiro Fonseca Fernandez, Wilfredo Alfonso Ibanez, Israel Rodriguez Lima and Erasmo Machin Garcia; they were supposed to have scouted spots around the island for a potential landing of invading exiles. For some reason, Cuba was paranoid about the possibility.
Four others — Antonio Cobelas Rodriguez, Orlando Sanchez Saraza, Juan M. Milian Rodriguez and Jose S. Bolanos Morales, according to the Nov. 13 New York Times — had been shot on Nov. 12 for similar crimes; they had supposedly attempted to make an armed landing on a boat out of Florida. Five others (whose names I have not located) were reported executed on Nov. 8.
On this day..
- 1989: Solomon Ngobeni, the last hanged in South Africa - 2019
- 2018: The Sultan of Coins - 2018
- 1879: Charles Drews and Frank Stichler, graveyard insurance - 2017
- 1738: False Tsarevich Alexei - 2016
- Daily Double: Georgia - 2015
- 1996: Larry Lonchar, bad gambler - 2015
- 1864: Franz Muller, "Ich habe es getan" - 2014
- 1888: William Showers, "pathetic soul" - 2013
- 1930: Yang Kaihui, Mao Zedong's wife - 2012
- 1960: Phineas Tshitaundzi, the panga man - 2011
- 1726: The Gypsy outlaws of Hesse-Darmstadt - 2009
- 1817: Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian independence heroine - 2008
- 1226: Frederick of Isenberg - 2007
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Cuba,Death Penalty,Espionage,Execution,History,Shot,Spies,Terrorists,Treason,USA
Tags: 1960s, 1963, anti-communism, antonio cobelas rodriguez, argimiro fonseca fernandez, cabana fortress, cia, cold war, communism, erasmo machin garcia, havana, israel rodriguez lima, jose bolanos morales, juan milian rodriguez, november 14, orlando sanchez saraza, wilfredo alfonso ibanez
