Manuel Antonio de Varona, 83, a Cuban exile leader and former politician who spent most of his life fighting for a free Cuba, died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer.
“Tony Varona,” as he was called by most people, was chairman of La Junta Patriotica Cubana, a coalition of more than 100 Cuban exile organizations, including the paramilitary group Alpha 66 and the Cuban Municipalities in Exile.
In the 1960s, Mr. de Varona organized the Cuban Revolutionary Council. It helped organize Brigade 2506, which launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961.
“We’re going to feel a tremendous leadership vacuum, but in his name the best commitment is to keep struggling for a free Cuba,” said his nephew, Roberto de Varona, a Bay of Pigs veteran.
Mr. de Varona was born in the province of Camaguey in 1908. A lawyer by profession, he was elected to Cuba’s congress in the 1940s and served as prime minister in Cuba’s last democratically elected government.
Mr. de Varona fought against Cuban dictators Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista and was one of the first Cubans to publicly speak out against Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
His activism through the years led to imprisonment and exile.
“Varona was Cuba himself, the way he loved the country and the way he always fought for justice and freedom,” said Ceferino Perez, a commissioner of press and information with La Junta Patriotica Cubana.
Many exiles remember Mr. de Varona as a man of honesty, one who went into exile with no money, unlike other politicians of his time who became rich off the government.
“It’s a shame that God did not give him more life to see the end of Fidel Castro,” said Alvaro Sanchez-Cifuentes, president of the Latin Chamber of Commerce of Broward County. “To me he is a hero. Someone whose life was led as an example for all of us Cubans to love our country and liberty.”
Mr. de Varona is survived by his wife, Olivia; son, Carlos; and daughters, Lina Del Rio and Yvonne Smit, all of Miami. He is also survived by his brother, Luis, and sisters Ophelia and Esther.
A Mass will be said at 12:30 p.m. today at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church at 2987 W. Flagler St., Miami. A silent march and burial service will follow at Flagler Memorial Park, 5301 W. Flagler St., Miami.
