MIAMI.- Jorge Gutiérrez Izaguirreformer member of the 2506 Assault Brigade and one of the historical figures of the Cuban resistance, died this Monday in Miami at the age of 88. Known among his peers as “The Sheriff,” he dedicated his life to the fight against Fidel Castro’s regime and the defense of democracy in Cuba.
Gutiérrez Izaguirre was in his fourth year of Law at the University of Havana when he decided to abandon his studies to join the fight against the nascent totalitarian system.
Since the beginning of the 1960s, he joined the Revolutionary Recovery Movement (MRR), headed by Manuel Artime, with the purpose of organizing a military offensive against the dictatorship. After being summoned by the organization, he went into exile and moved to the island of Usseppa, in Florida, where he received specialized training in radiotelegraphy before the Bay of Pigs landing.
He was part of the vanguard of Brigade 2506 and participated in two infiltration attempts in Cuba. In the second he managed to enter clandestinely and was taken to a safe house in Havana. Later, he was transferred to Matanzas to join the guerrilla units that operated under the command of Erelio Peña as a radio operator.
When these forces were surrounded by Castro troops, Gutiérrez Izaguirre decided not to retreat, despite having orders to do so. He remained in the area to destroy communications equipment, confronting the militias along with several companions. Two of them died in combat, and he was seriously injured by a FAL rifle shot that left a deep mark on his chest, a scar that he proudly displayed throughout his life.
After his capture, he was put on trial by the revolutionary courts and initially sentenced to the death penalty. The sanction was commuted to 30 years in prison, of which he served 18 under harsh prison conditions, before going into permanent exile.
With his death, the Cuban exile loses one of the last direct witnesses of the armed struggle against Castroism and a voice that, until his last days, insisted on the need to recover freedom in Cuba.
Upon learning of his death, various exile figures reacted on social networks. Cuban-American Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar he wrote on his X account: “Today we say goodbye to a giant of freedom, Jorge Gutiérrez Izaguirre, hero of the Assault Brigade 2506. Brave people like him risked everything to free Cuba from communism. His sacrifice reminds us that the fight is not over and that the dictatorship will fall.”
