Miguel Ángel Gómez Caboverde

* 1966

  • “The rations? Normal, natural, as many Cubans have their plate of food today... I don't have it today because I practically had to search for food out there. But I eat what we Cubans eat, rice or beans, because I can't buy a main course every day. And there is no one who buys it every day.”

  • “I do agree that there are millionaires [in Cuba]. Do you agree with the economic freedom? And what does the freedom of speech mean to you? Cuba is free, one moves here, one moves even there, and without any difficulties. Yes? Yes. Miguelito, how many times have you traveled outside Cuba? Exclusively when I went to fulfill the mission in Angola. And the rest, why haven't you traveled outside? Because I was not interested in traveling outside.”

  • “I never liked being a militant. I am a fidelist, at any cost I am a supporter of Fidel [Castro]. But not of the communist regime. In other words, communism is to you different from fidelism... Yes, to fidelism. And the raúlism [sympathy to the regime of Raúl Castro, the brother of Fidel]? No, the raúlism not, because raúlismo does not enter the matter, as it is was out of service."

  • “The treatment they gave me here in Cuba, was at the beginning… So, I arrived here, they gave me the treatment, I recovered, and from there they send me a plane to Guantanamo, I returned to Havana on the plane for the next medical shift, and from there ... They gave me a car and all that stuff, they sold me a refrigerator, a room set, a bedroom set, a dining room set, a washing machine, a blender, all that stuff. Did they sell it to you? Yes, at a low price… at a military cost.”

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    Guantánamo, Cuba, 25.09.2019

    (audio)
    duration: 01:48:48
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“I support Fidel at any cost.”

Miguel Ángel Gómez Caboverde
Miguel Ángel Gómez Caboverde
photo: Post Bellum

Miguel Ángel Gómez Caboverde was born on September 29, 1966, in Cuba to a peasant family, which soon after his birth moved to Guantanamo. In 1985 he voluntarily joined the Angolan War mission, where on August 13, 1986, he was seriously injured by an explosion. Both his eyes had to be amputated, leaving him completely blind. After his return to Guantanamo in November of the same year, he was received by the party and the government. In 1987 he was elected president of the ANCI (National Association of Blind and People with Lower Vision), where he remained for the next eight years, until 1994. The Special Period of the Cuban economic crisis, he experienced almost without perceiving it, thanks to support and subsidies from the Association. He lives in Guantanamo together with his wife, daughter, and granddaughter and remains a convinced supporter of the deceased Cuban leader Fidel Castro.