Dying at the age of 76, Armando Sosa Fortuny spent more than half his life suffering mistreatment in a Cuban political prison. Yet despite the torture and humiliation he endured in a Castro gulag, he never gave up the fight for freedom in Cuba.

Rest in peace, Armando.

Via Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter:

Requiescat in pace, Armando Sosa Fortuny 1943 – 2019, Cuban political prisoner

The Castro regime condemns Armando Sosa, but celebrates Fidel Castro for doing the same thing in the struggle against Fulgencio Batista.

Political prisoner Armando Sosa Fortuny was born on March 5, 1943 and died on October 28, 2019 at the Amalia Simoni provincial hospital in Camagüey, as confirmed by relatives and activists. Sosa Fortuny spent 43 of his 76 years in Cuban prisons.

Sosa Fortuny was jailed twice for fighting for the freedom of Cuba. His first sentence was served from 1960 to 1974, according to a report from El Nuevo Herald. (Other sources place his release date as 1978.)

According to 14ymedio, Armando Sosa left Cuba clandestinely at age 18 for the United States. In October 1960 he returned with the intention of overthrowing the dictatorship, at which time one of his companions died in combat and ten others were shot by firing squad, including three Americans.

After being released, he came into exile in the United States but did not give up his struggle to see a free, democratic and prosperous Cuba.

On October 15, 1994 Armando Sosa Fortuny returned to the island, along the coast of Caibarién, Villa Clara, with Lázaro González Caraballo, Pedro Guisao Peña, José Ramón Falcón Gómez, Jesús Manuel Rojas Pineda, Miguel Díaz Bouza and Humberto Real Suárez to continue fighting for freedom. They belonged to the National Unity Party (PUND) a militant organization.Their plan was to establish themselves in the Escambray mountains, to create guerrilla groups and carry out military actions to overthrow the Castro dictatorship. Following their clandestine landing he was captured, arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The Cuban dictatorship called him a “terrorist”. One of the members of this group, Humberto Real was accused of killing Arcilio Dionisio Rodríguez García.