Cuba Archive - Case 3819

Case ID: 3819

Title: N/A

First name: Andrew

Last name: de Graux Villafaña

Suffix: N/A

Aliases: Andy, El Americanito (The American)

Name also reported as: Enndy Degrost Villafana, Andrew de Graux, Andrés Grau, Andrew de Graux Villafana, Andrew DeGraux

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: Day:15 / Month:2

Civil Status: Unknown

Date of death/disappearance: Day:15 / Month:9 / Year:1962

Citizenship: United States

Last known address: Antonio Maceo #53

Last known city: Trinidad

Last known province-TOD: Las Villas

Last known province current: Sancti Spíritus

Last known country: Cuba

Location death-address: N/A

Location of death - city: N/A

Location of death province - at TOD: N/A

Location of death province - current: N/A

Location of death - country: Cuba

Trial held?: No

Docket Number: N/A

Sentence details: N/A

Arrest or detention at time of death: N/A

Date of arrest: N/A

Imprisoned/Detained: Location: N/A

How long imprisoned/detained: N/A

Death attributed to: Castro regime

Death attribution detail: N/A

Associated Event: Anti-Castro insurgency - Escambray uprising

Case description:

Andrew De Graux, “el americanito,” had been active in the resistance to Batista. The family had been harassed due to their US citizenship (his father was an American) and he was arrested repeatedly. He was only 18 years old when, during the Bay of Pigs invasion of April 1961, he went into hiding and eventually joined the uprising at the Escambray mountains led by small farmers against the Castro regime. A year earlier he had organized a student strike against Castro. His group was located at the finca Limones Cantero by Castro militias thanks to an infiltrator/informant. Andy was shot in the gluteus and in the shoulder (reaching a vertebra) during the combat with Castro troops on September 13th, 1962. One of the shots rendered him unable to walk and he was captured and taken to a hospital in Trinidad for medical treatment that was two blocks from his parents’ home. He knew the doctor and asked for his parents to be notified. At the hospital, he was denied water, medical treatment, and subjected to psychological torture; State Security ordered his transfer to a hospital in Cienfuegos on Sept. 15, 1962. There, he was operated on successfully on Sept. 18th (1962) and the bullet was removed from his spine (Andy had feeling in his extremities) but when the operating doctor, Dr. Miguel Rodríguez Marcoleta, went to see him that night, he did not find him and was told he had died. He went to the morgue and the body was not there and was asked to sign the death certificate, which he refused. The family was told that Andy had died from his injuries and buried in a common grave at the Aceas cemetery in Cienfuegos. The family was later given a report allegedly from the CIA that Andy had been shot trying to escape from the ambulance and buried at La Campana military camp in Las Villas but the US government said it had no information and had not been contacted by the Swiss embassy. Political prisoners later reported that they had been told that Andy had been taken to La Campana militia camp where he had been severely beaten up and his blood had been forcibly extracted before his execution. He had dual US and Cuban citizenship. While Andy was imprisoned (and injured), his mother requested assistance from the US government at the Swiss embassy, which represented US interests. His family was not allowed to see Andy at either hospital while hospital authorities acknowledged he was there. 
His mother was later taken to the Aceas cemetery in Cienfuegos and told that one of the tombs could be his but they did not know which one. The family was ostracized and deprived of access to goods and suffered persecution.
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Joven de ciudadanía cubana y estadounidense que había organizado la huelga estudiantil contra el régimen de Castro que Porfirio Ramírez convocó antes de su muerte y que se unió al levantamiento del Escambray contra el régimen de Castro a los 18 años de edad.  Había estado activo en la resistencia contra Batista. Le dispararon en el glúteo y el hombro durante un combate con las. milicias en el rancho Limones Cantero el 13 de septiembre de 1962. Uno de los disparos le impidió caminar y fue capturado y llevado a un hospital en Trinidad para recibir tratamiento médico que estaba a dos cuadras de sus padres. Conocía al médico y pidió que se notificara a sus padres. Pero se le negó el agua y fue sometido a tortura psicológica. La Seguridad del Estado ordenó su traslado a un hospital en Cienfuegos. Aparentemente fue operado con éxito, pero desapareció. Cuando el Dr. Rodríguez Marcoleta fue a ver a Andy el 18 de septiembre, no lo encontró y le dijeron que había muerto. Pero, cuando fue a la morgue, el cuerpo no estaba allí. Se le pidió que firmara el certificado de defunción, pero se negó. A la familia le dijeron que había muerto y que fue enterrado en una fosa común en el cementerio de Aceas en Cienfuegos. Surgieron rumores de que había sido visto en Santa Clara y ejecutado en el campamento de la milicia de La Campana, en Las Villas o en la prisión de la Fortaleza de La Cabaña en La Habana.
Según un ex preso político que estaba encarcelado en ese momento, el caso de "el americanito" fue ampliamente discutido entre los presos. Se dijo que había sido golpeado severamente hasta matarlo y su sangre había sido extraída por la fuerza antes de su ejecución.

Sources: Conflict of Evidence:

Gómez Estrada, 1990, p. 51, reports him as disappeared in 1961.  Circuito Sur, July 2002, p. 23, states that he was the son of an FBI agent who disappeared on September 18, 1962 in Cienfuegos after being captured at the skirmish of Limones Quarry, province of Las Villas.  Clarinada, septiembre 2008, reports the victim as Andrew DeGraux, taken from Cienfuegos Hospital to be tortured and assassinated at La Campana militias camp at the age of nineteen, on September 17, 1962.  Beruvides, 1993, p. 124, reports the victim as Andrés Grau, an anti-Castro insurgent last living in Las Villas province, killed in combat in Las Villas province on September 13, 1963.  Nuestra Cuba, 1998, p. 73, reports the victim killed in combat on 09/13/1962. According to Roberto Martin Pérez, former political prisoner, some prisoners at the time rumored that De Graux had been executed at La Cabaña Fortress prison in Havana. It was rumored that he had lost a leg as a result of the shooting, had been severely beaten up until his execution and his blood had been forcibly extracted before his execution.

Violation Status: Confirmed with primary source(s)

Cause of Death: - Execution: with prior blood extraction

Occupations: - N/A

External Files: N/A

Relatives in Archive: N/A

Victim Type: - Anti-Castro insurgent or resistance member

Affiliations: N/A

Other Victims Same Event: N/A

Case Record - Andrew de Graux Villafaña