Talk:Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz

Obituary: El Nuevo Herald 28 June 2008
(Google translation, 3 Oct 2009) WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA. Se suicida legendario piloto anticastrista. El Nuevo Herald June 28, 2008.

Fidel Castro's victory surprised him in preparations for an airlift from Costa Rican territory and immediately traveled to Santiago de Cuba to meet with rebel forces.

Appointed on the same day as chief of the Revolutionary Air Force, Díaz Lanz traveled to Camaguey to convince the military pilots of the previous regime that would be respected by the revolutionary government. At that time, Castro promised that they could remain in the armed forces and any previous action would be considered in compliance with orders.

"The pilots believed it and many of them flew me to [military camp] Columbia [in Havana],"Díaz Lanz recalled in testimony in 1988. "Who was going to say a few months later would be arrested and tried by order of the head of the Joint Chiefs, Raúl Castro, and condemned - in defiance of a previous acquittal process - by Fidel himself?".

The case marked the pilots Diaz Lanz disenchantment with the revolutionary process that had helped them succeed.

Fidel Castro annulled a first process for pilots, unhappy with the verdict that found innocent, and proceeded to order a new indictment. The sentences are then raised to 30 years in prison, but many witnesses said it was the intervention of Diaz Lanz in court that allowed life saving.

Opposed to the influence of communists in key government positions, Díaz Lanz was removed from his post and left Cuba on 29 June 1959, aboard a sailboat. After several days adrift, arrived in Miami on July 4 and testified before Congress about the intentions of Fidel Castro of turning Cuba into a communist country under the Soviet orbit.

But the recklessness of Diaz Lanz would be tested on 21 October 1959, when flying over Havana on a plane to drop thousands of leaflets denouncing the way in which Marxist revolution. The flight was low over the city, causing indiscriminate gunfire from the military camps, buildings and streets by members of the Rebel Army.

The next day, Castro was accused of bombing Havana and linked the action with the case of Matos, who had already been arrested in Camagüey Province on charges of sedition. At a rally convened shortly after the Cuban leader opposite the Palace of the Revolution, an angry crowd called "wall" for Matos and Diaz Lanz.

Matos denied that there were links between conspiracy, although Diaz Lanz had warned of a private conversation aboard a plane, in which Castro said that "we will have problems with Huber" in reference to its anticommunist statements.

In exile, Diaz Lanz founded in 1959, the Cuban Constitutional Crusade, along with Frank Sturgis, and served in missions organized by the CIA to carry out actions to infiltrate the island.

Was also among the members of the so-called Operation 40, a group of prominent anti-Castro activists were to accompany the issuance of the Bay of Pigs in April 1961.

Diaz Lanz was actively involved in maritime operations introduce numerous weapons in Cuba during the 60s.

The Cuban government has always considered him as a dangerous enemy and he even broadcast versions of his alleged involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

"Go down in history as a visionary," said anti-Castro activist Jose Hilario Pujol, a personal friend of Diaz Lanz." It was the first from within the process realized that would bring Fidel Castro to Cuba, was that more sacrifice for their ideals.''

In exile, Diaz Lanz held various jobs to survive, among them the roofer. Their economic situation was precarious, and in recent years to sleep in his own car, lacking the resources for affordable housing.

But many friends said it was difficult to make him accept any monetary help for their livelihood. She had embraced the faith with religious fervor.

"We believed in a Cuba without winners or losers, without hatred or rancor, with all and for all. We believed in respecting the rights of others, freedom and justice. Was this beautiful dream that so many embraced and for which many gave life. But the night's ambitions expanded on our beautiful island,''he wrote years ago in an article published in El Nuevo Herald.

Miami is survived by his brothers Edward, Mark and Yolanda, his sons Peter René, Pedro Miguel, Tania Denisse, Minu and Yvonne, and several grandchildren. Three other siblings had died before: George committed suicide in Miami in 1976, Esther María was murdered in Miami Beach in 1986 and William was hanged in Havana in 1998. His eldest son Pedro Luis also died years ago.

His body will be on display this Sunday from 6 pm and until midnight in the Funeral Caballero-Rivero-Woodlawn, located in the 8200 Bird Road in Westchester. The funeral will be held Monday at 2 PM Woodlawn Cemetery in the South, at 11200 SW 8 St, Miami.
 * End of obituary.PeterWD (talk) 20:39, 3 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Some of your information is incorrect...here is additional info.
 * I am his oldest daughter, Gilda Minu Diaz, my sister Ivon, his third. His boat was never adrift...while fleeing Castro, he purposely took his time sailing the short span between Cuba and Miami, in order not to appear like a fleeing boat to those flying above him. He certainly couldn't leave in a plane or use a speed boat-too obvious. He also held jobs in the airplane industry as:  crop duster, plane inspector, and restoring vintage planes, and at one time, owned several planes and a helicopter.  He couldn't work in the airline business for insurance liability reasons. He also restored older vintage cars and was a gifted airplane and car mechanic, that was what he first did before becoming a pilot in Aerovias Q, when he met Castro.  As he got older, suffering the effects of losing his memory and his ability to earn a living, he became despondent and depressed.    My sister's name is Ivon.  You didn't mention that Castro made several assassination attempts on my father in Miami, trying on two separate and unsuccessful occasions to poison him.  One time he was also shot at in the middle of SW 8th Street in Little Havana...I was there.  Thank you, Gilda Minu Diaz Landis 2600:1700:A1D7:20D0:B841:1AB7:8FDC:CFAF (talk) 02:24, 10 March 2022 (UTC)