Mario Chanes de Armas was a revolutionary, sailing with Fidel and Che on the Granma.

Mario Chanes de Armas was a revolutionary, sailing with Fidel and Che on the Granma. He was caught and jailed by Batista. Once the revolution succeeded, he happily resumed his life. But he soon landed back in jail---because he was a freedom-lover, never wanting Communism or any other form of tyranny. Interestingly, Castro jailed him on the same charges Batista had. And Chanes sat in prison for 30 years, six of them in solitary confinement (no window, barely enough room to stand up). As the Financial Times said, Chanes was "the longest-serving political prisoner in the western hemisphere," spending longer in jail than Nelson Mandela. Mandela's case was known, worried over, and agitated about worldwide. But, as the FT said, "the stories of Chanes and his fellow Cuban political prisoners received little publicity outside the Cuban exile community in Miami." The first thing Chanes did upon his release was visit the grave of his only son, Mario: Mario had been born after Chanes's jailing and had died at 22. Chanes was not allowed to attend the funeral because he refused to submit to a "reeducation" program. Reflecting on his decades in prison, Chanes said, "I watched men get shot, point blank, beaten with bayonets, arbitrarily pulled out and punished. But we were alone. The world didn't know." The FT reported that "Chanes never showed bitterness about his years in Castro's jails, saying they had never crushed his spirit." "After my release," Chanes said, "during my two years in Cuba, I realized that no one on the island was free anyway. I don't have feelings of hatred or vengeance. Vengeance is for cowards." There was a man. Mario Chanes de Armas died at 80 in Miami. R.I.P.