Cuba Archive - Case 7102

Case ID: 7102

Title: N/A

First name: Ventura

Last name: García-Marín Thompson

Suffix: N/A

Aliases: N/A

Name also reported as: Ventura García-Marín Thompson

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Date of Birth: N/A

Civil Status: Unknown

Date of death/disappearance: Day:2 / Month:1 / Year:1981

Citizenship: Cuba

Last known address: N/A

Last known city: Barrio Párraga

Last known province-TOD: La Habana

Last known province current: Ciudad de La Habana

Last known country: Cuba

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?: Yes

Docket Number: 46 of 1980

Sentence details: Death

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: Interior Ministry, Special Troops

Associated Event: N/A

Case description:

On December 9, 1980, the three García Marín brothers plus two men and three women sought asylum at the Vatican Embassy in Havana by forcing a door. The brothers were Jehovas Witnesses, fiercely persecuted in Communist Cuba, and of very humble socioeconomic background. They had received several warnings of impending imprisonment under Cuba's "dangerousness" law and had been desperately seeking refuge for several weeks. At least one had reportedly served political imprisonment for practicing his faith. Just hours after they entered the diplomatic premises, Interior Ministry's Elite Special Troops raided the complex and took the group prisoner. Two high-ranking defectors from Cuba's intelligence services have confirmed to Cuba Archive that the ambassador (nuncio) Giulio Einaudi, had authorized the raid. Reportedly, the embassy had been evacuated of most personnel and remaining embassy staff had told the asylum-seekers that consular officers were coming to process their safe conduit out of the country. The brothers were taken to State Security headquarters, where they were pressured into filming self-accusatory interviews, which they refused. They were tried summarily and sentenced to death for allegedly killing the Cuban butler at the embassy. One account has prosecutor Carlos Amat simply informing them that they had been ``tried and sentenced to death." They were executed the following day. The other asylum-seekers were sentenced to prison terms of 15 to 25 years, but released several years later after the case received some international attention. The mother of the three brothers, Margarita Marín Thompson, was sentenced to 20 years of prison, together with other relatives, for allegedly assisting them or not turning them in to authorities.  Margarita was released in December 1986 with her mental health affected.  Despite anguished pleas for years, the family was denied the remains of the three brothers for proper burial. The mother died in 1992 still pleading for her son's bones. 
The Cuban government claimed that the brothers were armed with a pistol, but they insisted they were unarmed, which other sources have confirmed.  Human rights activists in Cuba conducted a subsequent investigation that reportedly revealed that the embassy worker allegedly killed in the raid was an intelligence agent of the Cuban government who had staged his injuries with fake blood. (All Cuban workers in diplomatic missions must be hired from a government agency and most are known to be spies.) They claim that his name was Isidro Peñalver León, an officer of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) found to be living with no sign of injury or illness in a Havana neighborhood, Reparto Fontanar. One source close to the Church at the time reports that Vatican officials in Cuba knew he was a spy but tolerated it. Cuba’s bishops pled for the life of the brothers and Monsignor Meurice sent a letter to all parishes in Cuba and but no official note of protest by the Church or the Vatican are known to have been sent.
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El 9 de diciembre de 1980, los tres hermanos García-Marín forzando una puerta y pidieron asilo en la Embajada del Vaticano en La Habana junto con dos hombres y tres mujeres. Los hermanos eran Testigos de Jehová, muy perseguidos en la Cuba comunista, y de origen socioeconómico muy humilde. Habían recibido varias advertencias de encarcelamiento inminente bajo la ley de "peligrosidad" y habían estado semanas buscando refugio desesperadamente. Al menos uno había cumplido una pena de prisión política por practicar su fe. Apenas unas horas después de ingresar a las instalaciones diplomáticas, las Tropas Especiales élite del Ministerio del Interior allanaron el complejo y apresaron al grupo. Dos desertores de alto rango de los servicios de inteligencia de Cuba han confirmado a Archivo Cuba que el embajador del Vaticano (el nuncio), Giulio Einaudi, había autorizado el allanamiento. Se había evacuado a la mayoría del personal de la embajada y a los solicitantes de asilo les dijeron que solo permanecían los funcionarios consulares que les procesarían su salvoconducto fuera del país. Los hermanos fueron llevados a la sede de la Seguridad del Estado, donde los presionaron para que filmaran entrevistas incriminatorias, a lo que se negaron. Fueron juzgados sumariamente y condenados a muerte por presuntamente matar al mayordomo cubano de la embajada. Se dice que el fiscal Carlos Amat simplemente les informó que habían sido "juzgados y condenados a muerte". Los fusilaron al día siguiente. Los otros solicitantes de asilo fueron condenados a penas de prisión de 15 a 25 años, pero fueron liberados varios años después de que el caso recibiera cierta atención internacional. La madre de los tres hermanos, Margarita Marín Thompson, fue sentenciada a 20 años de prisión, junto con otros familiares, por presuntamente asistirlos o no entregarlos a las autoridades. Margarita fue liberada en diciembre de 1986 con afectaciones mentales. A pesar de las súplicas angustiadas durante años, a la familia se le negaron los restos de los hermanos para un entierro. La madre murió en 1992 todavía suplicando por los huesos de sus hijos. El gobierno cubano afirmó que los hermanos estaban armados con una pistola, pero ellos insistieron estar desarmados, lo que se confirmó con otras fuentes. 
Activistas de derechos humanos en Cuba llevaron a cabo una investigación posterior e informan haber revelado que el trabajador de la embajada presuntamente muerto en la redada era un agente de inteligencia del gobierno cubano que había fingido sus heridas con sangre falsa. (Todos los trabajadores cubanos en las misiones diplomáticas deben ser contratados por una agencia gubernamental y se sabe que la mayoría son espías). Sostienen que su nombre era Isidro Peñalver León, un oficial del Ministerio del Interior (MININT), al que encontraron viviendo sin señal de lesiones o enfermedad en el Reparto Fontanar de La Habana. Una fuente cercana a la Iglesia en ese momento informa que los funcionarios del Vaticano en Cuba sabían que era un espía, pero lo aceptaban. Los obispos cubanos pidieron por la vida de los hermanos y el Monseñor Meurice envió una carta a todas las parroquias de Cuba, pero no se conocen notas oficiales de protesta de la Iglesia o del Vaticano con respecto a este incidente.

Sources:

Telephone testimony of defector --former Cuban intelligence officer Manuel Beunza, 11 Apr. 2012. Telephone testimony of defector, former Cuban intelligence officer Enrique García, 22 Apr. 2015. Telephone testimony of Ricardo Bofill, April 11, 2005. Testimony of Margarita Thompson (mother), cited in Ricardo Bofill, Diario Las Américas,  9 Sep. 1997. Video testimony of Ricardo Bofill, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5CyqC8N-qo. Telephone testimony of Carlos Cabezas, priest at the time who knew embassy staff, by telephone, 6 Apr. 2012.  Pablo Alfonso, El Nuevo Herald, 31 Oct.1997, p. 6A. Valladares, 1985, p. 384.  Amnesty International Annual Report 1983, p. 130. Reader's Digest, Oct.1998, p. 83. Fuentes, Narcotrafico, 2002, pp. 102-104. Juan O. Tamayo, 'Ex-Cuban Prosecutor's Role in Rights Panel Criticized,' The Miami Herald, 16 Apr. 1998. Arnaldo M. Fernández, Ricardo Bofill: el tiempo es el diablo, Broward, Cuba Encuentro, 13 Jul. 2019. Tania Díaz Castro, Un crimen casi olvidado, CubaNet, 11 May 2012  Un rehén muerto en la ocupación de la nunciatura apostólica en La Habana, La Habana, El País, 10 Dec.1980. Nuestra Cuba, 1998, p. 3.  Montaner, 1984, p. 267. Cuban American National Foundation, Quilt, 1994. Reinaldo Bragado, 1998, p. 5. Un día como hoy, Comité Internacional de ex-Presos Políticos Cubanos, e-mail of 1 Jan. 2022. Instituto de la Memoria Histórica Cubana contra el Totalitarismo, 2002, p. 35.

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: - Brother/Sister in Case 7100: Cipriano García-Marín Thompson - Brother/Sister in Case 7101: Eugenio García Marín Thompson

Victim Type: - Attempting exit

Affiliations: - Jehovahs witness

Other Victims Same Event: - Case 7100: Cipriano García-Marín Thompson - Case 7101: Eugenio García Marín Thompson

Case Record - Ventura García-Marín Thompson