1977: Dardo Cabo, Argentina junta victim 1889: Louisa Collins, the last woman hanged in New South Wales
January 7th, 2020
Headsman
VIDEO
Santa Clara lately captured by Cuban revolutionaries, Col. Cornelio Rojas Fernández, commander of the city’s defeated government garrison, was shot without trial by the order of Che Guevara .
It was just one among hundreds of vengeful executions being visited in those weeks upon authorities of the deposed Batista regime.
Viewers of the televised public shooting saw the stocky commander — the grandson of a hero of the 19th century Cuban War of Independence — walk unafraid to his death in an armed escort, where he exhorted his onlookers until the firing detail sent his fedora flying.
Rojas’s granddaughter Barbara Rangel remains an energetic advocate of her father’s innocence, from Florida. A kinsman named Pedro Rojas Mir was among those killed in the 1961 Bay of Pigs debacle when anti-Castro exiles mounted a failed invasion of Cuba.
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Entry Filed under: 20th Century ,Capital Punishment ,Cuba ,Death Penalty ,Execution ,History ,No Formal Charge ,Power ,Public Executions ,Shot ,Soldiers ,Summary Executions
Tags: 1950s , 1959 , che guevara , communism , cornelio rojas , cuban revolution , january 7 , santa clara
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On this date in 1959, in the city of Santa Clara lately captured by Cuban revolutionaries, Col. Cornelio Rojas Fernández, commander of the city’s defeated government garrison, was shot without trial by the order of Che Guevara.
