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

THIS IS THE STORY OF WILLIAM MORGAN, AN AMERICAN-BORN COMMANDER OF THE REVOLUTION EXECUTED BY CASTRO IN 1961.

William Morgan was born in Toledo Ohio and lived in Michigan. At the age of 18 he joined the US Army. He was sent to Japan as part of the occupation troops sent after the Second World War. He was dishonorably discharge from the Army in 1950.

William Morgan, in the mountains of Escambray

Morgan was a friend of Jack Turner that was sending arms to the Cuban rebels. Morgan joined these activities and soon in 1958 he became a guerrilla fighter in the mountains of Escambray. He was under the command of Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo. In the mountains he fell in love with a Cuban rebel and married her.

Marti Park, in Cienfuegos City

On January 1, 1959, when Batista gave power to Castro he was in charge of the large city of Cienfuegos in Villas Province. We shall remember that Batista forces surrendered all large cities and military garrisons without fighting.

In Cienfuegos City, Morgan joined the caravan of Fidel Castro in route to Havana on January 9. He became one of the most popular leaders of the revolution because he not only was an American but he had shown his valor in the ambushes of Banao, Trinidad and other places while in the mountains.

Morgan in a march in Havana with Che Guevara on the left and President Dorticos who later suicide on the right. Dorticos was a Communist since an early age besides being the president of a social club in Cienfuegos City

Che Guevara, President Dortico, and Morgan

In the initial months of the revolution the State Security marked Morgan because he opposed Communism. Everyone knew Morgan did not get along well with Che Guevara or Felix Torres another important revolutionary leader. For that reason some members of the Batista's regime contacted Morgan to have an uprising and take the city of Trinidad. Morgan together with Eloy Gutierrez

Menoyo his commander in the mountains was still solid behind the revolution. They denounced the conspiracy to Castro and betrayed the would-be rebels. Morgan then following Castro's instructions told the conspirators that he had the city under control ready waiting for them to support him. When the rebels landed in Trinidad on August 12, 1959, they were all apprehended. On the 15 of that month in a televised conference Castro presented Morgan as a hero of the revolution and gave him the Cuban citizenship.

TheTyrant, Menoyo and Morgan, year 1959

After a few months Morgan had been assigned to manage an industrial plan in the mountains of Escambray to keep him isolated because his anti Communist commentaries already known to many. Morgan was angry about Castro's remarks against the United States of America. Soon together with Commander Jesus Carrera and other high-ranking rebel officers Morgan began to organize an anti communist movement to revert the Marxist direction the government had taken.

Castro always focus in the security of his state never allows the smallest critic and penetrates with spies even his most trusted subordinates. When he learned about Morgan's conspiracy he ordered all of them arrested. He was jailed in La Cabana political prison on October 1960.

After Morgan spent some months in jail on March 9, 1961, a summary trial found him guilty of being an agent of the CIA or Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. During his trial Morgan who knew he was going to be condemned sang the "As the Caissons Go Rolling Along". He was sentenced to death. After the CIA declassified all his documents it was found that Morgan never worked or spied for the CIA.

Two days after being sentenced by a revolutionary judge on March 11, 1961, William Morgan was executed in front of a firing squad at 33 years of age. Witnesses recorded that he sang the US Army theme before the execution. William Alexander Morgan is another hero of the revolution who felt betrayed, revolted against Castro and ended being executed.

With Morgan they also executed the rebel Commander Jesus Carrera Zayas of 27 years of age.

Commander Jesus Carrera Zayas

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