HAVANA, Cuba. – Arnaldo Ochoa, the well-known Cuban general, died of a euphemism. Ochoa, the Hero of the Republic of Cuba, died of a subterfuge. Arnaldo Ochoa, the general of so many battles, died of an evasion. The death of the general, the decision to kill him, was almost a show, a spectacle, a warning, and that was recently made clear to me by the Cuban writer Enrique del Risco.
General Ocho died from a hint. And Enrique del Risco has put his finger on the wound. “Enrisco” He told us A very curious detail about the death of General Ochoa, the one who was put in front of the weapons by decision of Fidel Castroand after a trial with a very precise script that, they say, was under the very control of Fidel, who acted from the shadows, as a kind of stage manager, as a disguised master of ceremonies.
And Enrisco, who graduated in History at the University of Havana and who later, to repay the Government for all that generosity and enormous selflessness that allowed him to become a graduate in History, was “invited” to do his Social Service, which is a way of paying for studies, at the Columbus Cemetery.
And it was there that the intelligent and shrewd recent graduate began to search, like a good historian, like a curious writer, in that paperwork that would allow him to chronicle some Cuban deaths that concluded their life in that Havana cemetery. And searching, and searching, removing papers, death certificates, as good historians do, the young man found the death certificate of the one who was one of the most respected Cuban military men in the times of Fidel Castro.
And, oh surprise, there Enrisco would find something very curious, the death certificate of the general and Hero of the Republic, Arnaldo Ochoa, where someone, undoubtedly a doctor, had established the cause of death of that general shot by order of Fidel Castro. There Enrisco discovered that the cause of death that was recorded on the death certificate was something as simple as “anemia.”
A simple anemia had ended the life of the soldier who, until very recently, had been considered a faithful and upright warrior. ANEMIA was seen as the cause of death of this soldier who had so often eluded death in countless military scenarios caused by his boss Fidel Castro.
Anemia killed the man without warning us that ferrous fumarate was on the list of “missing” substances that pharmacists usually make. Anemia, and not a gunshot, was the cause of death that Enrisco found in the death certificate of the soldier who had carried out many of Fidel’s assignments, countless missions in diverse and far-off war scenarios.
And the death certificate of Ochoa, the skilled warrior, included a euphemism. The cause of his death, according to the certificate, was anemia and not rifle shots that compromised the life of, God knows, how many vital organs. An irony put an end to the life of the communist warrior who was so often loyal to Fidel Castro, who placed him under his command in many warlike episodes.
Anemia ended the soldier’s life and not a bullet, or two, or more… With a bullet they put the soldier and his many battles in the shadows, some of them very gruesome and under the same command, the only real command possible, that of Fidel Castro.
Anemia put Ochoa in the shadows, anemia killed him, without the rifle shots that hit the body of the general of so many battles, the one who was considered a Hero of the Republic of Cuba, being noticed.
A simple anemia caused Ochoa to spend the rest of his life, and his death, in that place that we Cubans call “Reparto Bocarriba”, ignoring the rifle shots and the very logical bleeding. Anemia, and not the rifle shots, caused Ochoa to live his death in the Colon Cemetery.
Anemia, not a gunshot, was the cause of the death of the famous soldier who carried out countless missions in various war scenarios. Ochoa, the skilled warrior, the faithful communist, the war-maker, will be nothing more than a languid anemic, a guy with serious hemoglobin problems, and nothing more. And we thank Enrisco for all these certainties, the writer who was also the historian of the Havana cemetery of Colon, where the remains of Ochoa, who in life was a general, are kept.
