Although the official coverage of the disappearance of Camilo Cienfuegos has always been monolithic, there are too many unknowns surrounding the case.
MIAMI, United States. – On October 28, 1959, Camilo Cienfuegos left Camagüey for Havana aboard a five-seat twin-engine Cessna 310 (FAR-53, registration 53). Until today, the Cuban regime maintains that a few miles after takeoff the aircraft encountered bad weather and fell into the Strait of Florida without leaving a trace.
After 15 days of intense search, in which 70 planes participated (two of them piloted by Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara), fishing boats and civil brigades – even with support from the US Air Force over the Bahamas and Grand Cayman – neither the ship nor vestiges of its occupants were found.
On November 12, Fidel Castro officially informed the Cuban people that Camilo had physically disappeared on that flight. On that occasion he declared: “Camilo Cienfuegos will truly live in all of us, and he will be present among us.” Since then, the regime aimed to honor him as a popular hero and every October 28, official events are organized in his memory.
The official Cuban version maintains that the plane was lost in bad weather conditions. In a statement reproduced by the Government press was informed that the Cessna 310 “lost its way halfway and disappeared into the sea, leaving no trace.” The diaries Revolution and Granma attributed The cause is “potent bad weather caused by a storm” on the Camagüey-Havana route.
Based on the fruitless search, the Government concluded that Cienfuegos “did not survive that tragic flight.” So it made official Fidel Castro when he declared a week of national mourning starting November 12.
Both in the state press and in official anniversaries they avoid raising doubts; The figure of Camilo is exalted and his revolutionary legacy is highlighted without questioning the government version.
According to the official storythe aircraft took off on October 28, 1959 at 6:01 p.m. from Camagüey bound for Havana. The plane was a Cessna 310, twin-engine, five-seat aircraft (FAR-53). Three people were traveling: Camilo Cienfuegos (chief of the Rebel Army General Staff), the first lieutenant pilot Luciano Fariñas Rodríguez and infantry soldier Félix Rodríguez (his escort).
The route between Camagüey and Havana required about two and a half hours of flight (later reports they point out that the plane had fuel for approximately three hours). Officially it was said that from Ciego de Ávila to the north there was a storm and strong winds that hindered the flight.
After the disappearance, the Cuban Government immediately mobilized a national search. The areas were divided into grids – from the north of the central provinces to the keys of the archipelago – and dozens of aircraft took off. In total, 70 aircraft were used, including two fighter ships. Juan Almeida Bosque led the aerial operation, while fishing boats searched the coastal area. Land brigades of militiamen, farmers and volunteers throughout the province also participated.
In subsequent days, American ships and planes flew over the Bahamas, Key West and even Grand Cayman without success.
(The US, by the way, was bothered that the island’s regime did not recognize its cooperation: a telegram sent by the United States Embassy in Havana to the State Department in Washington, said: “[Castro] “He did not mention the help provided by the US in the search for Camilo”).
In short, no sign of shipwrecks or wreckage of the plane was found and, after two weeks of searching (until November 11), the Cuban Government concluded the operation.
According to official sources, no remains of the plane or its occupants were recovered. Cuban state media they have insisted in which the plane disappeared into the sea “without leaving a trace.” There is also no public record of a “black box” or flight recordings.
Juan Juan Almeida, one of the sons of Commander Juan Almeida Bosque, points out in an article published in Martí News, that in the Camilo Cienfuegos National Museum, in Yaguajay, there would be a bent propeller labeled “remains of the small plane.” [en que desapareció el llamado Héroe de Yaguajay]». However, independent researchers have confirmed that this propeller does not correspond to the Cessna 310 FAR-53 in which Cienfuegos lost his life. CubaNet He could not confirm that said piece, with the aforementioned label, was found in the museum of that Sancti Spiritus municipality.
In the absence of evidence…
The absence of clear evidence has fueled multiple hypotheses outside the official version. Independent media, journalists and historians have raised the reasonable doubts raised by the case. And still others have also spread practically implausible hypotheses.
Perhaps the best known hypothesis is the one that speculates that Fidel Castro could eliminate Camilo due to rivalry or fear of his popularity. Unverified testimonies of aerial combat or fighter outings against the small plane have also been disclosed, although they lack confirmation.
According to public documents, the United States also does not know for sure what happened: a memorandum from the director of the CIA from 1967 which collects comments from Ernesto Che Guevara before his execution in Bolivia, says this:
For many years the story has circulated that Fidel Castro Ruz had Cienfuegos, one of his main lieutenants, assassinated because his personal popularity represented a danger to him. In reality, Cienfuegos’ death was an accident. Cienfuegos was in the province of Oriente when he received a call to attend a meeting of the General Staff in Havana. He left by plane, and the theory was that the plane had been lost in low-altitude flying conditions, had used up all its fuel, and had crashed into the ocean, with no trace of it being found. Castro loved Cienfuegos more than any of his lieutenants.
In general, historians point out that there is no conclusive evidence to support the murder hypothesis. For example, the Center for Cuban Studies at the University of Florida mention that “for decades the Cubans who lived through those days believed that Raúl Castro had ordered his death,” but the lack of definitive evidence also highlights.
In July of this same year, Yunior García Aguilera he recalled in the independent newspaper 14ymedio that “from time to time” “living people appeared claiming to be the guerrilla with the alón hat” or alleged evidence circulated about the discovery of his remains.
One of those theories spread on social networks indicates that an alleged human skeleton found in the Zapata Swamp was actually the corpse of Camilo Cienfuegos. This would have been verified after a comparative DNA examination between the human remains and Osmany Cienfuegos Gorriarán, Camilo’s brother. died in May of this year.
There are also theories that involve Huber Matosfor whom Camilo traveled to Camagüey, and Camilo’s fellow fighters.
In conclusion, there has been talk of murder, settling scores, rivalry and an endless number of theories that refute some points of the official version or contradict it completely.
Unaware of this, the Cuban state media strictly follows the official line: each anniversary they remember the figure of Camilo as a hero, without mentioning speculation. The official press inform of the events in the Plaza de la Revolución where “thousands of Cubans pay tribute to the Hero of Yaguajay” and publish commemorative news “Cuba does not forget” type.
But, although the official coverage has always been monolithic, there are too many unknowns surrounding the case, whose answers may still remain at sea or in some archive, in some memory that we will never be able to access.
