MIAMI, United States. — On April 9, 1958, Francisco Molina del Río, a Cuban living in the United States and a fervent defender of the nascent Cuban regime, was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison in a New York court after being found guilty of a case of homicide occurred months before in that city.
The position assumed by Molina del Río in favor of the Cuban Revolution would give way to the first campaign of Castroism in favor of a prisoner of US justice.
The official encyclopedia secured, points out that Francisco Molina del Río was sentenced to life imprisonment under pressure from the US State Department; however, the facts deny this hypothesis.
In reality, Molina was imprisoned because the US courts accused him of being the author of the shots on September 22, 1960, during a brawl between Cuban exiles and supporters of Castroism in the New York restaurant “El Prado.” The action caused the death of a nine-year-old Venezuelan girl and injured two other people.
The defendant’s participation in the event had been confirmed by eyewitnesses to the event, who saw Molina shoot, who, missing one of his hands, was easily recognized in the crowd.
Although the incident was never properly clarified, the Cuban regime blamed the shooting at the restaurant on “worms paid by the CIA.”
Others, on the other hand, claimed that “the sympathizers of the Revolution” who were there, including Molina, were G-2 agents infiltrated in the United States.
A review on the events published in this same newspaper by the writer and journalist Luis Cino elaborates on the position assumed at the time by Castroism, which alleged that false witnesses were testified during the process and that there were arrangements with the prosecutor, something that Samuel Neuburger, defense attorney, could never try.
The article states that it was also not known “who paid the large fees that Neuburger charged for defending Molina.”
Following a fierce international campaign for his release, Francisco Molina del Río was included in a prisoner exchange after Fidel Castro granted clemency in 1963 to 24 American citizens who were imprisoned in Cuba.
Molina returned to Havana on April 23 of that year. In the Cuban capital they gave him a triumphant reception, in which he expressed his gratitude to the Revolution. He was never heard from again.
