Cuba Archive - Case 4450

Case ID: 4450

Title: N/A

First name: Felipe

Last name: Vidal Santiago

Suffix: N/A

Aliases: N/A

Name also reported as: Felipe Vidal, Santiago Vidal

Age: 38

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: Day:3 / Month:2 / Year:1926

Civil Status: Unknown

Date of death/disappearance: Day:27 / Month:5 / Year:1964

Citizenship: N/A

Last known address: 2293 NW 7th St

Last known city: Miami, Florida

Last known province-TOD: N/A

Last known province current: N/A

Last known country: United States

Location death-address: La Cabaña Fortress prison

Location of death - city: Havana

Location of death province - at TOD: La Habana

Location of death province - current: Ciudad de La Habana

Location of death - country: Cuba

Trial held?: N/A

Docket Number: N/A

Sentence details: N/A

Arrest or detention at time of death: Yes

Date of arrest: N/A

Imprisoned/Detained: Location: La Cabaña Fortress prison

How long imprisoned/detained: N/A

Death attributed to: Castro regime

Death attribution detail: N/A

Associated Event: Anti-Batista insurgency/resistance

Case description:

Vidal had reportedly infiltrated Cuba on a number of occasions with the anti-Castro resistance movement. According to Cuban government media, Vidal and three other men were executed having been captured off the north coast of Las Villas province seeking to infiltrate Cuba in a heavily armed vessel from Miami in in March 1964. They had first stopped briefly in Anguilla, a Bahamas islet. The four, described as “agents of the Central Intelligence Agency” with Vidal as their leader, had reportedly been sighted by Cuban fishermen, who had advised the Cuban Coast Guard. The men had thrown their weapons overboard before being captured. They were interrogated and tortured for weeks before their execution. Former political prisoner Eleno Oviedo, who saw Vidal walk to his execution at La Cabaña, reported that he was singing the Cuban national anthem and had led his own firing squad; his cry of “Viva Cuba Libre” had reverberated in the entire prison.  Vidal had been one of the leading Navy officers conspiring against dictator Batista when he was a naval aide to Defense Minister Santiago Verdeja in the regime of General Fulgencio Batista. He was then made a Commander in the revolutionary navy and subsequently named Cuba's naval attaché in Venezuela, from where he defected alleging Fidel Castro's usurpation of power and Cuba's financing of subversion in Venezuela. He entered the US from Colombia on Aug. 9, 1960 and joined the anti-Castro resistance in Florida, co-founding the United Front for National Liberation (Frente Unido de Liberación Nacional, FULN). He had been granted an indefinite parole to the United States but, on March 31, 1963 US authorities  had ordered him to not depart the country in an attempt to stop "raids" to Cuba. Some researchers have linked him to the assassination of US president John F. Kennedy, but providing no evidence.
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Vidal se había infiltrado en Cuba en varias ocasiones como parte de la resistencia anticastrista. Vidal y otros tres hombres fueron ejecutados, según la prensa oficial de Cuba, después de haber sido capturados frente a la costa norte de la provincia de Las Villas cuando intentaban infiltrarse en Cuba en una embarcación con armas procedente de Miami que antes se había detenido brevemente en Anguilla, un islote de las Bahamas. Los cuatro fueron descritos como “agentes de la Agencia Central de Inteligencia” y Vidal como el líder. Informó que pescadores cubanos detectaron al grupo y avisaron a Guarafronteras de Cuba y que habían arrojado sus armas por la borda antes de ser capturados. El exprisionero político Eleno Oviedo vio a Vidal caminar hacia su ejecución en La Cabaña e informó que había cantado el himno nacional cubano y dirigido su propio pelotón de fusilamiento. Toda la prisión escuchó su grito de “Viva Cuba Libre.”  El grupo había sido capturado en marzo de 1964 e interrogado y torturado durante semanas antes de su ejecución. Durante el régimen de Batista, Vidal había sido uno de los principales oficiales de la Marina conspirando contra Batista (era ayudante naval del ministro de Defensa Santiago Verdeja). Fue nombrado Comandante de la Armada Revolucionaria y luego Agregado Naval de Cuba en Venezuela, de donde había desertado debido a la usurpación del gobierno por parte de Fidel Castro y el financiamiento de la subversión de Cuba en Venezuela. Ingresó a los Estados Unidos desde Colombia el 9 de agosto de 1960, uniéndose a la resistencia anticastrista. Cofundó el Frente Unido de Liberación Nacional (FULN). Se le había otorgado entrada indefinida en los Estados Unidos, pero, para detener las "redadas" a Cuba, las autoridades estadounidenses le habían ordenado que no saliera del país el 31 de marzo de 1963. Algunos investigadores implican a Vidal con el asesinato del presidente John Kennedy, pero sin evidencia.

Sources:

E. Ros, El clandestinaje, 2006, p. 398. Testimony of brother in law, Memorial Cubano, 2/20/2005, Miami. L. Ruiz, Diario de una traición 1961, p. 184. Secret memorandum, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Field Office File 105-6466, Dec. 6, 1962. Orlando Gutiérrez, Directorio Democrático Cubano, text messages to Cuba Archive, Apr. 24, 2022. 
Felipe Vidal Santiago, Spartacus Educational, https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKsantiago.htm. “Cuban raiders ordered to not depart,” http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Cuban-Raiders-1963.pdf. https://www.ebay.com/itm/374027066038 WAQI-Radio Mambí, p. 21, has him executed by firing squad at La Cabaña Fortress prison in Havana. Cubans execute 4 exile raiders; Declare Group Left Miami Heavily Armed Craft to Attempt Infiltration, The New York Times, Havana, May 28, 1964, p. 1, column 2. United States Information Agency, 1993, Year 1964. Beruvides, 1993, p. 186. Cuban American National Foundation, Quilt of Fidel Castro's Genocide, 1994. WAQI-Radio Mambí, p. 46. Nuestra Cuba, 1998, p. 41. Circuito Sur, July 2002, p. 88. Un día como hoy, Comité Internacional de ex-Presos Políticos Cubanos, e-mail of May 30, 2022.

Conflict of Evidence:

Violation Status: Confirmed with primary source(s)

Cause of Death: - Execution: by firing squad

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: - Case 5385: Alfredo Valdés Linares - Case 5384: Elías Rivera Bello - Case 5383: Ladislao González Benítez

Case Record - Felipe Vidal Santiago