Huber Matos affair

Huber Matos affair
Part of the Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution
Matos in a prison transport bus shortly after his arrest.[1]
DateOctober 19–21, 1959
Location
Camagüey Province, Cuba
Caused by
  • Appointment of PSP members to public office
  • Aggressive agrarian appropriations
  • Appointment of Raúl Castro to head of Army
GoalsPublic acknowledgement of "communist threat"[2]
MethodsMutiny/Resignation
Resulted inArrest of Matos and 14 mutineer officers[2]
Parties
Matos' officers
Lead figures
Casualties
Arrested15

The Huber Matos affair was a political scandal in Cuba when on October 20, 1959, army commander Huber Matos resigned and accused Fidel Castro of "burying the revolution". Fifteen of Matos' officers resigned with him. Immediately after the resignation, Castro critiqued Matos and accused him of disloyalty, then sent Camilo Cienfuegos to arrest Matos and his accompanying officers. Matos and the officers were taken to Havana and imprisoned in La Cabaña.[3] Cuban communists later claimed Matos was helping plan a counter-revolution organized by the American Central Intelligence Agency and other Castro opponents, an operation that became the Bay of Pigs Invasion.[4][page needed]

The scandal is noted for its occurrence alongside a greater trend of removals of Castro's former collaborators in the revolution. It marked a turning point where Castro was beginning to exert more personal control over the new government in Cuba. Matos' arresting officer and former collaborator of Castro, Camilo Cienfuegos, would soon die in a mysterious plane crash shortly after the incident.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference pbs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cuba A Short History. Cambridge University Press. 1993. p. 104. ISBN 0521436826.
  3. ^ Anderson, John Lee (2010). Che Guevara A Revolutionary Life (Revised ed.). Harvard University Press. p. 427. ISBN 978-0802197252.
  4. ^ Fabián Escalante, The Secret War: CIA Covert Operations Against Cuba: 1959–62 (1995)
  5. ^ Beyond the Eagle's Shadow New Histories of Latin America's Cold War. University of New Mexico Press. 2013. pp. 115–116. ISBN 978-0826353696.