SOUTH CIRCUIT Presents
FACTS ABOUT CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EXECUTED IN COMMUNIST CUBA

THIS IS THE STORY OF ANDREW DE GRAUX VILLAFANA A YOUNG AMERICAN-BORN PATRIOT WHO FOUGHT CASTRO IN THE AREA OF TRINIDAD IN CUBA. HE WAS CAUGHT AND DISAPPEARED IN 1962.

Trinidad city - Plaza

Trinidad is a city in the area of the mountains of Escambray. Trinidad city was founded in 1514. The mountains in the area have caves as that of Caucubu named after a native woman that rebelled against the Spanish colonization. After the Communists took over Cuba this hilly area was one of the focus of rebellion against Castro. One of these rebels who took up arms against Castro in this area was Andrew De Graux Villafana. He was a democrat and immediately rebelled against Marxist pre potency.

Andrew was the son of Captain Andrew De Graux and Maria Villafana Izarra. He was born on February 15, 1942, in Trinidad. Since an early age he showed rebellion against political abuses and was persecuted by dictator Batista's henchmen in his hometown Trinidad. The De Graux family lived in Gutierrez Street near the town jail two blocks from the hospital. From their home they could hear the Communist shooting squads arbitrarily executing innocent people without a trial. Under the pressure of seeing injustice unabated Andrew and his family repudiated the new regime. They began to hope for a counterrevolution.

Beginning in 1961, Andrew and his family suffered the harassment of those the regime had marked as "worms." The Marxists wanted them to resign their "imperialist" citizenship or leave the country. Andrew was detained several times by the political police. In one of these arrests he was falsely accused of trying to steal the weapons from the security guards of the paper factory "Pulpa Cubana" and the Trinidad jail. Yet there was no evidence. They used these types of arrests to show the victim they were powerless. He was continuously threatened

When the invasion of Bay of Pigs, everything changed. The Communist dictatorship used the invasion as an excuse to jail all that they considered not cooperating with the Communist spirit. They retained in concentration camps, sport arenas, theaters and other localities 350,000 people. The state security of Trinidad city also placed many Cubans in jail. When they went to get Andrew he evaded his would-be-captors and joined the guerrillas in the mountains of Escambray.

Mountains of Escambray.

During the years 1961 and 1962 Andrew, 19 years of age, participated in several actions against the regime. He was a member of Carretero guerrillas with the group of Jose Leon, also under the command of Pedro Gonzalez where he met the famous fighter Buitre. This last one a fighter from Placetas was killed the same day that Pedro Gonzalez was killed.

Andrew was part of a guerrilla group commanded by Benito Rodriguez Pedraja, who was later executed. Thursday, September 13, 1962, they were moving to the Chispa area behind the mountain Topes de Collantes when they engaged an enemy force larger than their own in the farm Cantero Limones. In the battle that ensued Jaime Quinche was killed. Andrew was captured after being wounded by two bullets. He was taken to Trinidad hospital. His family were notified by friends but were not allowed to see Andrew in the hospital. After a strong 24-hour interrogatory and despite his wounds he was transferred to Cienfuegos city.

His sister Mary tried to follow the ambulance in a taxi but in the street in front of Punta Brava park State Security Commander Felix Torres forbid the taxi to take her to Cienfuegos. She had to take a public bus, which delay her pursuit.

When she arrived to Cienfuegos hospital the medical director forbid her to enter the place. They had to return to Trinidad without seeing Andrew.

After returning to Trinidad on the night of September 15, the Communist shock troops went to the hospital to lynch Andrew. When they found he had been transferred they went to his home to harass his family. Knowing the Communist procedures his family had abandon the house and moved to Havana. In vain they tried to move the Swiss Embassy, representatives of the Government of Washington DC, to intervene in favor of Andrew.

These acts of terror against relatives and the property of those not cooperating with Communism has been a standard procedure used against dissidents and oppositionists until the present. They are called acts of repudiation. The hate the shock troops had against Andrew was because a few days past the guerrillas commanded by Carretero had killed three members of the Romero family all informants of the Security Police or G2.

Andrew went through surgery on September 17 where they extracted a bullet near his fifth vertebra. Andrew who did not trusted the doctors asked for spinal anesthesia and a mirror to see the surgery. When the operation was finished Andrew could feel his feet and was recovering well. He was placed in a room with another guerrilla who had an abdomen wound the size of a fist.

Next day early in the morning the Communist police went to see the doctor and told him to sign a death certificate because Andrew had died. Since the doctor did not see his body in the morgue, nor in the funeral chapel, he refused to sign the certificate. The one with the abdomen wound had also been removed from the room. According to State Security forces they had been transferred to Santa Clara city.

From that moment on rumors began to circulate that someone had been found death on the highway. The rumors said that Andrew traveling in the same ambulance that dropped the dead body had fought with his captors. They said Andrew had been killed in the struggle. Another rumor said they had seen Andrew in a wheel chair in Santa Clara city. Some political prisoners in La Cabana prison in Havana said to their visiting relatives they had seen Andrew there. Years went by and in 1970 the chief of State Security in the mountains of Escambray made an indecent proposition to Andrew's sister in exchange for showing her brother. She answered that her brother would rather see her death than accepting his proposition.

Everything indicates that on September 18, 1962 in the hospital of Cienfuegos, Andrew De Graux was seen the last time. He is one of many disappeared by the henchmen of the Communist dictatorship. Nothing else has been known of Andrew.

Words from Andrew's sister: I thank those who work for the pages of South Circuit (Circuito Sur) for the contribution to the cause for which my brother died. I thank them in special for publishing the story of my brother Andrew De Graux.

I hope the stories of all those who died fighting in the guerrillas of the mountains of Escambray, in the streets of the cities and in the communist concentration camps are someday published here. We must remember all those who were disappeared by the regime, those who are still in jail, those who were tortured to death, those who felt in front of the firing squad and those who died in the Straight of Florida trying to escape.

I want Andrew to represent all of them because Andy, like them, fought for pure ideals, for the love of his fellow countrymen and gave his life for them.

Mary L. De Graux.

  English menu --------- Spanish menu

Circuito Sur