Armando Valladares Quotes

American diplomat and former Cuban prisoner

Armando Valladares Perez (born May 30, 1937) is a Cuban poet, diplomat, and human rights activist, who was imprisoned by the Fidel Castro Regime from 1960-1982. His books include the poetry collection, From My Wheelchair (1977), and the autobiographical work, Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag (1985). In 1988, Valladares was appointed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, a position he held until 1990.

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Alternative Names: Armando Valladares Perez

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I am old enough to remember when there was no Amnesty International. I am also old enough to remember a Cuba before Fidel Castro. Indeed, my seemingly simple life trajectory dramatically changed course right as the two were coming into existence. In 1960, at the age of 23, I was taken away at gunpoint in the night for refusing to place a sign on my desk that read, “I’m with Fidel.” One year later, Amnesty International was founded, and I became one of their first prisoners of conscience.

He was a man full of hatred … Che Guevara executed dozens and dozens of people who never once stood trial and were never declared guilty … In his own words, he said the following: "At the smallest of doubt we must execute." And that's what he did at the Sierra Maestra and the prison of Las Cabanas.