Cuba

CUBA

Cuban army general’s son posed for photo with hands around the neck of ‘Fidel Castro’

 

The son of a Cuban army general assigned as advisor in Venezuela posed for a photograph with his hands around the neck of a wax figure of the former Cuban leader.

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jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

A Cuban army general assigned as an advisor in Venezuela has two children living abroad, including one in South Florida who was photographed “strangling” a statue of Fidel Castro, a Miami blogger reported Wednesday.

“We want to show the ideological decay in the armed forces, how the generals’ own children think, and warn the Venezuelans of what can happen to them,” said Luis Dominguez, who runs the blog Cuba al Descubierto — Cuba Uncovered.

The blog often takes jabs at the usually secretive members of Cuba’s ruling class, publishing their home addresses and phone numbers as well as private details on relatives who have left the island and now live abroad.

Dominguez said his post Wednesday was prompted by news reports that retired Venezuelan Gen. Antonio Rivero had identified Cuban Gen. Leonardo Andollo as the second in command of the island’s military mission in Venezuela. ivero complained to the national prosecutor’s office in Caracas last week that the “active presence” of Andollo and other Cuban officers in meetings of the Venezuelan military violated the South American country’s sovereignty.

Cuba has been reported to maintain a large military and security advisory mission in Venezuela to support leftist President Hugo Chávez, although its numbers and the names of its officers are not publicly known.

Dominguez headlined his post, “Cuban general who tries to enslave Venezuela has his two children and three grandchildren living in free lands.”

The blog post shows Andollo’s son Ernesto, in a photo from the son’s Facebook page, with his hands around the neck of a figure of Castro at a wax museum in New York. The text says, “How much I would give to really do it.”

Ernesto, 41, left Cuba in 1994, lives in Naples, Fla., is married and has two children, according to the blog post. El Nuevo Herald could not reach Ernesto, but messages to his wife seeking comment for this story were not returned.

His sister Deborah moved a year ago to Cozumel, Mexico, with her French husband and their son. She has held 16 records for diving without scuba gear and now runs an aquatic activities academy, Blue Yemaya, in the Caribbean island.

Her Web page, deborahandollo.com, includes photos of her father and brother. She confirmed to El Nuevo Herald that she was the daughter of Gen. Andollo, said she was not aware of her brother’s photo and declined further comment.

Dominguez also published details of Andollo’s career, including engineering studies in the former Soviet Union, a deployment in Ethiopia and his current membership in Cuba’s parliament, the National Assembly of People’s Power.

He also published Andollo’s Havana address and phone number and noted, “It would be good if all Venezuelans who want their homeland free of Cubans would call him and let him know.” He declined to reveal the source of his information.

The post included several photos of Andollo, his home in Havana and a brother named Sergio, Deborah’s husband Eric Testi and Deborah with Homero Saker, identified as the Cuban consul in the resort city of Cancun, near Cozumel.

Also published in the post were the numbers of Cuban passports and national identification cards for Deborah and others that could not be independently confirmed.

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