A Repentant Former Gunman

A Repentant Former Gunman / Michel Iroy Rodriguez
Posted on November 26, 2013

Havana, Cuba, November 2013, www.cubanet.org. — Juan Lazaro Avila
Herrera, physically impaired (his right leg is lame) regrets having
belonged in his youth to a firing squad at the La Cabaña Fort.

When he served in the Association of Rebel Youths, at only 18 years of
age, he was attracted to belonging to the firing squads. He remembers
that along with him, a group of 23 youths, aged between 16 and 20, were
captivated.

According to him, sometimes the executioners seized rings and other
items from the people shot.

Once he was accused of counterrevolution and taken to the Principe
prison. He says that during the trial he was so scared that he defecated
in his pants. He thought he would be shot, but he was absolved. In spite
of that, after he left jail, for a week he had to go sign in every day
at a police unit.

"I was infiltrated into a counterrevolutionary band and participated in
several operations. In one of them I arrested a priest, from whom we
confiscated in the basement of the church explosives and weapons plus a
map where the places were marked that would be blown up," he recounts.

He says he is remorseful for having been at the point of killing a man
named Jose Diaz when he arrested him in his home, where they took him
with 14 AKs and several Makarov pistols. "I put the pistol to his
forehead and squeezed the trigger. If I did not kill him it was because
the weapon jammed," he said.

He served as investigator for the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) in
the Guanabacoa police unit, dealing with cases of car theft and rape in
the area of the beaches to the east of the capital. He remembers that
one time, when he was investigating a case of the rape of a young girl
of 12 years of age, he was outraged and beat the arrestee he was
interrogating with the butt of his pistol.

Avila also belonged to the Merchant Marine. He says he has transported
weapons and sugar to several countries, among them Angola, Nicaragua and
Honduras. He says that in this latter country, 10 thousand tons of sugar
were sent once, which were not for the Honduran people but were
transported to a North American boat which was found lying alongside his
boat.

"It was a mistake to have dedicated almost all my life to the
Revolution. I ask myself all the time what did I fight for," he told
this reporter.

Avila Herrera retired with a pension of 279 Cuban pesos (slightly more
than $10 US). He lives in a dwelling that is a hallway with kitchen and
bath. He decided to tell his story to the independent press because he
is very disappointed in the government he served and for which he was
willing die and kill.

Michel Iroy Rodriguez, yeikosuri11@gmail.com

Cubanet, November 21, 2013

Translated by mlk

Source: "A Repentant Former Gunman / Michel Iroy Rodriguez | Translating
Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/a-repentant-former-gunman-michel-iroy-rodriguez/