Arcos Bergnes brothers

Arcos Bergnes, brothers. Mainly referring to Gustavo (1926-2006), Sebastian (1931-1997), and Luis (1933-1956), all involved in Cuban politics since 1952. Originally from Caibarien, a fishing town on the northern coast of the central province of Las Villas, the Arcos Bergnes family is composed of two branches, the result of two Arcos brothers who married two Bergnes sisters. Gustavo, Sebastian, and Luis, along with six other brothers and sisters: Rosina, Antonio, Adela, Eliana, Humberto, and Maria Helena were the children of Antonio Arcos and Rosina Bergnes. Gustavo was the fourth child, Sebastian the seventh, and Luis the eighth. They all attended Catholic schools (Marista Brothers), and were living in Havana when General Batista's military coup toppled President Prio's legitimate government in March 1952. All three brothers got involved in the anti-Batista resistance through the then popular Partido Ortodoxo. Gustavo was seriously wounded in the 1953 attack on Moncada Army Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Luis, at this time a private in the Cuban Army, was expelled for providing some of the military uniforms used by the assailants in the attack. While still recovering, a bold commando-type operation was enacted allowing Gustavo to escape from the hospital where he was being held in custody. He was later recaptured and sent to prison on the Isle of Pines. After the Moncadistas were released in the summer of 1955, Gustavo was involved in organizing the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) throughout the island, and was appointed by Fidel Castro to a leadership position in the group. Sebastian helped Gustavo to organize the Movement in Northern Las Villas Province and became its leader in that region. In 1955 Gustavo and Luis left Cuba for Mexico, where they helped prepare Castro's military invasion of the island. Luis, who returned to Cuba with Castro on the yacht Granma, was captured and then killed by the army in the Sierra Maestra Mountains in 1956. Gustavo, who did not make it in time to board the Granma, remained in Mexico as head of the M-26-7 in exile. That same year, Sebastian was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for his role as M-26-7 leader. After Castro's revolutionary takeover in 1959, Sebastian was made a captain in the Navy and was later appointed vice-minister of finance. After having criticized Castro for his mistreatment of Costa Rica's President Figueres, in 1961 Gustavo was appointed ambassador to Belgium, Denmark, and Luxembourg. He openly criticized the Marxist turn of the revolution until he was arrested in 1966, charged with "acts against the security of the state." He was sentenced to ten years in prison. Sebastian was expelled from his Navy post (the ministry of finance had been abolished by Guevara some years before) and went back to his profession as an orthodontist. Gustavo was released in 1969 after a 21-day hunger strike, but remained under close surveillance and was not allowed to leave the country, even after his older son became paralyzed in an automobile accident in Miami in 1979. Gustavo then requested Sebastian's help in a plan to leave Cuba illegally. In December 1981 they were both arrested by the Cuban secret police (along with Sebastian's former wife, son, and daughter) and sent to prison. This time Gustavo was sentenced to seven years, Sebastian to six, and Sebastian, Jr. to one year in prison for the crime of "attempted illegal departure." While in the Combinado del Este prison the brothers joined the Cuban Committee for Human Rights (CCPDH). Once released, both Gustavo and Sebastian were appointed vice-presidents of the CCPDH. After Dr. Ricardo Bofill, the CCPDH's founder and president, was forced to leave the island in 1988, Gustavo became the group's secretary general. Sebastian coordinated the testimony given by numerous members of the CCPDH's before a special group from the UN Human Rights Commission which visited Cuba in 1988, and expanded the CCPDH from a small Havana-based group into a nationwide organization. Between 1988 and 1992 they both suffered several actos de repudio (repudiation acts) arrests, and harassment. In 1992 Sebastian was again arrested by the secret police. Charged with "enemy propaganda" and "inciting to rebellion," he was sentenced to four years and eight months in Ariza Prison, Cienfuegos Province, alongside dangerous criminals, where he was systematically denied medical attention. When presented with a government offer of immediate release conditioned to his leaving the island permanently, Sebastian was the first political prisoner ever to choose prison in Cuba over freedom in exile. After a vigorous international campaign, Sebastian was finally released in 1995. Shortly after he was admitted into a hospital due to severe pain in his left leg. A malignant tumor was found, forcing Sebastian to travel to Miami for treatment, where he died of cancer on December 22, 1997. His case is used as a textbook example by international human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to showcase the denial of medical attention as torture by the Castro regime against Cuban political prisoners. Gustavo Arcos Bergnes was the head of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights in Havana and a symbol of civic resistance until his death on August 8, 2006.