Our Mission
To promote a peaceful transition to a Cuba that respects human rights and political and economic freedoms
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Supporting the inalienable right of the Cuban people to determine their destiny
Urging men and women of goodwill everywhere to lend their voices to the cries for help of the Cuban people.
Mobilizing democratic governments around the world to institute policies toward Cuba that promote genuine reforms.
CUBA CENTER EXPERTS
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Professor Graciella Cruz-Taura
Dr. Cruz Taura teaches history of Cuba at Florida Atlantic University. Her scholarship on Cuban history and culture ranges from early colonial history (‘Espejo de paciencia’ y Silvestre de Balboa en la historia de Cuba) to recent affairs (Rehabilitating Education in Cuba: Assessment of Conditions and Policy Recommendations).
Professor Carlos Eire
A Yale University scholar, writes often about Cuban politics and culture. His memoir Waiting for Snow in Havana received the National Book Award for Nonfiction. He is the author of several other books, including A Very Brief History of Eternity (Princeton University Press, 2010), and Reformations: The Early Modern World (Yale University Press, 2016).
Professor Jaime Suchlicki
Jaime Suchlicki is Director at the Cuban Studies Institute, CSI, a non-profit research group in Coral Gables, FL. He is the author of Cuba: From Columbus to Castro and Beyond, now in its 5th edition; Mexico: From Montezuma to the Rise of the PAN, 2nd edition, and of the recently published Breve Historia de Cuba. Dr. Suchlicki is often interviewed by TV, radio, and printed media on Cuba and Latin American politics. One of his latest reports is Doing Business in Cuba: Investors Beware.
Ambassador Everett E. Briggs
Served as American Ambassador to Panama, Honduras, and Portugal, and as director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the National Security Council. A retired career Foreign Service Officer with a lifelong interest in Cuba, he has been interviewed by print and electronic media and written articles on the island and its people. He lives in Connecticut.
Dr. Jorge Sanguinetty
An economist and founder and chairman of DevTech Systems, Inc. who served in Cuba’s Planning Board under the revolution. He monitors and writes about the Cuban economy, Cuban society, and Cuban foreign affairs. Dr. Sanguinetty is a former president of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, a widely respected organization of economists and experts on Cuba. One of his most recent books focuses on the complexities of the issues of a Cuban transition to a market economy.
Dr. Eduardo Zayas-Bazán
Professor Emeritus from East Tennessee State University and a Founder and former President of the National Association of Cuban-American Educators (NACAE) and former President of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. Dr. Zayas-Bazán has lectured on U.S.-Cuban relations, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban culture and society. He is also the author of a novel set in the early days of the revolution, El pez volador (“The Flying Fish”). He participated as a frogman in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, was wounded, and served a year in prison before being ransomed by the U.S. government.
Mr. Sebastian Arcos
Associate Director of Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute and a member while in Cuba of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, the first independent human rights group in Cuba. Mr. Arcos has been interviewed by radio, TV, and printed media on Cuban politics and society. He has also written opinion articles on Cuba.
Mr. John Suarez
John Suarez is the Executive Director at the Center for a Free Cuba. Mr. Suarez was a program officer for Latin America Programs at Freedom House. He has been interviewed by TV, radio and print media on Cuba. Mr. Suarez is a human rights activist. He holds degrees from Florida International University and Spain’s Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. He has testified before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington DC, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, and served as an interpreter for Cuban dissidents in Congressional hearings. Since 2009 he has maintained the blog, Notes from the Cuban Exile Quarter.
Ambassador Otto J. Reich
A former Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere and American Ambassador to Venezuela, he appears often on TV and has written extensively on Cuba, Venezuela, and Latin American issues.
Ms. Ileana Fuentes
Ileana Fuentes was a Pedro Pan Operation unaccompanied minor (1961); holds a BA in History from Fordham University; a Certificate in Women's Leadership from the Rutgers University Hispanic Women Leadership Institute; and pursued graduate work in education and women studies. An expert on Cuban exile culture and art, she directed the landmark émigré art and literature project Outside Cuba/Fuera de Cuba (1985-1989) from her post at Rutgers U. An expert on race, gender and women's history. Founder of Red Feminista Cubana (2003), she is a tireless advocate for women's human rights in Cuba. Fuentes coordinated aid for the Ladies in White (2003); has served as guest panelist for Radio and TV Marti; has coordinated women's self-employment and democracy-building projects; and has written for 25 years for El Nuevo Herald, Diario Las Americas, Revista Encuentro, Diario de Cuba, and Cubanet.
Her writings are included in several anthologies; she authored Cuba without caudillos: A feminist approach to the 21st century (Princeton: Linden Lane Press, 1994), and is co-author of Dengue: La epidemia secreta de Fidel Castro (Washington DC: CFC, 2000), and Outside Cuba / Fuera de Cuba: Contemporary Cuban Visual Artists (Rutgers and UM, 1989). She was resident consultant (2009-2016) and founding director (2016-2019) of the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, and is guest columnist of CubaNet News.
FRIENDS OF THE CENTER - CUBA EXPERTS
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The Hon. Elliott Abrams
A Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr. Abrams covers the Middle East and human rights around the world. He writes “Pressure Points,” a CFR blog, about those subjects. He served as Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere and for Human Rights in the Reagan administration and as a Deputy National Security Advisor for President George W. Bush.
Professor Enrico Mario Santí
William T. Bryan Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Among his books, the noted Bienes del siglo: sobre cultura cubana, and Fernando Ortiz: contrapunteo y transculturación, about one of Cuba’s indispensable thinkers. Dr. Santí follows on a day-to-day basis developments in Cuba and U.S.-Cuban relations.
Ms. Rosa María Payá Acevedo
A pro-democracy activist who has led civil society activities in Cuba since 2009. A physicist graduated from the University of Havana, she participated in Georgetown University’s Global Competitive Leadership Program. In Cuba, she was part of the Coordinating Team of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and worked with Somos Liberación, and the Catholic magazine IXTHYS. Since 2013, she has participated in several international fora such as the UN Human Rights Council, the European Parliament, the U.S. Senate, the Organization of American States, the Summit of the Americas, and several national parliaments. She works to promote solidarity with the Cuban people and to seek justice for the murder of her father Oswaldo Payá, winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize and 5-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee. She is the coordinator of Cuba Decide, an international campaign that seeks to carry out a plebiscite in favor of the first free and multiparty elections in Cuba in 67 years.
Ms. Carolina Barrero
Carolina Barrero is an art historian, activist, and human rights advocate for the end of violence and authoritarianism, for peace and respect for civil and political rights. She took part in the protest movement that challenged Cuba’s totalitarian regime in 2021 as a member of the 27N movement of artists and intellectuals.
She was forced into exile in February 2022.
Ms. Sylvia G. Iriondo
President of Mothers & Women against Repression (M.A.R. por Cuba), a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of human rights and democracy on the island. She was on board the only plane that made it back to base on that fateful day, February 24, 1996, when Cuban Migs -under orders from Fidel and Raul Castro-shot down two Brothers to the Rescue small unarmed aircraft in international airspace while they searched for refugees in international waters. Three U.S. citizens and one Florida resident were murdered. MAR has denounced the increase in prostitution and sexual abuse of Cuban children resulting from the rise of tourism to the island. She has testified before the U.S. Congress, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and has been widely quoted.
OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM
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Mr. Frank Calzon
At the end of May 2019, Frank Calzon retired as Executive Director of the Center for a Free Cuba. Frank led the Center during 22 years of dedicated service during which he was instrumental in its founding and central to its activities, working tirelessly to promote freedoms in Cuba.
Frank has been, and in an important sense, remains the heart and soul of the movement for Cuba’s liberation outside Cuba.
Frank will continue supporting the Center as an advisor and a mentor, and will remain a respected and outspoken advocate for Cuban freedom.
The years of leadership at the Center are only the latest chapter in a life fully dedicated to the cause of Cuban freedom in many guises and settings, from his youthful days as information secretary at Abdala in the late 1960’s and early 70’s, to his ongoing advocacy as a senior statesman today. The Trustees of the Center for a Free Cuba, and the many others who have been and remain involved in the struggle are profoundly grateful for Frank’s indomitable spirit and implacable opposition to tyranny. He has been an inspiration to all those who share his belief that the long dark night of tyranny must end.
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Chairman: Mr. Guillermo G. Marmol
Vice Chairwoman: Mary Curtis Horowitz
President: Ambassador Otto J. Reich
Executive Director: Mr. John Suarez
Treasurer: Mr. Victor J. Pujals
Legal Counsel: Filiberto Agusti, Esq.
Director of Content: Mrs. Marcie L. Leist
OUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES
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Dr. Javier Garcia-Bengochea, Mr. Erik P. Bethel, Ambassador Everett E. Briggs, Mr. Néstor Carbonell, Mary Curtis Horowitz, Mr. Paquito D' Rivera, Mr. Erich de la Fuente, Mr. Manuel E. Iglesias, Esq., Mr. Guillermo G. Marmol, Ms. Rosa María Payá Acevedo, Mr. Victor J. Pujals, Ambassador Otto J. Reich, Mr. Rafael Rubio Núñez Mr. Luis Velasco, Dr. Eduardo Zayas-Bazan
Counsel: Mr. Filiberto Agusti, Esq.
OUR RESEARCH COUNCIL
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Sebastian Arcos (Florida International University), Dr. Jose Azel (University of Miami), Carolina Barrero (Art Historian), Professor Graciella Cruz Taura (Florida Atlantic University), Professor Dr. Sergio Diaz-Briquets (demographer), Humberto Calzada (award-winning visual artist), Jose Cardenas (Dep of State, NSC, USAID – Emeritus), Professor Carlos Eire (Yale University), Dr. Mark Falcoff (American Enterprise Institute-Emeritus), Ileana Fuentes (feminist critic and author), Alexander Guerrero (Rutgers University), Dr. Alexis Jardines (Florida International University), Professor Eusebio Mujal-León (Georgetown University), Dr. Joaquin P. Pujol (trade and development specialist), Jorge A. Sanguinetty (DevTech Systems, Inc.), Professor Jaime Suchlicki (founder and director, Cuban Studies Institute)
Help Support the People of Cuba
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In MemoriAm
Manuel Jorge Cutillas
3/1/1932 – 11/4/2013
An ardent advocate of freedom in Cuba, Manuel Jorge Cutillas became chairman of the Center for a Free Cuba in 1997 and served 16 years until his death. He was the great-great-grandson of Don Facundo Bacardí, who established the rum distillery that bears the family name.
Like many Cubans, Mr. Cutillas had hoped the 1959 Castro Revolution would bring peace and prosperity to island, following the despotic dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. It quickly became apparent that it would not. On Oct.14, 1960, Mr. Cutillas awoke in Santiago to news that the Castro government, without paying compensation, had confiscated the Bacardífamily’s assets. Mr. Cutillas journeyed to Havana to seeking permission to leave the country. The government responded by seizing his passport. So, he did what others were doing: boarded a boat and left anyway. After six days of rough seas, he arrived in Miami.
Eventually he and his family settled in The Bahamas where Bacardí & Company Ltd. established its headquarters. He spent 45 years with the company.
A philanthropist and humanitarian, Mr. Cutillas served as President and Chairman of the Lyford Cay Foundation, an organization that provides college scholarships to Bahamian students.
Renowned for his can-do and optimistic disposition, Mr. Cutillas was personally committed to “excellence and the entrepreneurial spirit.” An innate consensus builder, he continues to be an inspiration at the Center for a Free Cuba.
Elena Inés Mederos Gonzalez
1/3/1900 – 11/25/1981
Human rights and women's rights activist, feminist, suffragist, social reformer, wife and mother Elena Inés Mederos was above all a committed leader for freedom and progress in Cuba.
Ms. Mederos founded several organizations including the School of Social Services at the University of Havana and the Foundation for Social Services, which developed programs for children's organizations in Cuba. She was a co-founder of the Alianza Nacional Feminista, a suffragist organization active in Cuba during the 1920s. Ms. Mederos served as Minister of Social Work in the first Fidel Castro government and resigned months after her appointment citing differences over its non-democratic direction.
In 1961 at age 61 Ms. Mederos came to the United States after being active in Cuba in the opposition to the Castro Government. She joined UNICEF where she distinguished herself in multiple senior roles.
In 1975, jointly with Frank Calzon, Ms Mederos funded Of Human Rights, the predecessor to the Center For A Free Cuba and a pioneer in documenting the plight of Cuban dissidents. In its advocacy for human right and in its focus on Cuban political prisoners Of Human Rights was central in elevating this question in important public forums the US and abroad.
Ms. Mederos inspiration to all associated with the Center for a Free Cuba guides our work to this day.
William C. Doherty
12/26/1926 – 8/28/2011
William C. Doherty, one of the founders of the Center for a Free Cuba in 1997, served on its Board of Trustees until his passing in 2011. A strong advocate of civil rights, labor unions, and worker rights, he opposed dictatorships of all persuasions throughout Latin America. Mr. Doherty directed the AFL-CIO’s outreach to trade unions in Latin America for 35 years as executive director of the American Institute for Free Labor Development.
Mr. Doherty was born in Kentucky and studied diplomacy and law at Georgetown University. In his student days, he was a defensive lineman in Catholic University’s football team. During World War II, he served as an aerial photographer in Europe with the Army Air Forces, and at the end of the War, according to the Washington Post, “he worked in Germany to help rebuild trade unions there.” An early supporter of the revolt against Fulgencio Batista in Cuba, he denounced Fidel Castro’s turn towards Marxism as “the betrayal of the revolution.” During his years as a Trustee, he explained that the United States was not at war with the Cuban people, but that Americans support the desire for freedom, human rights, and multiparty elections which the Cuban revolution promised while fighting against the old regime.
Irving Louis Horowitz
9/25/1929 – 3/21/2012
Dr. Irving Louis Horowitz was Hannah Arendt University Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Rutgers University. Together with a small group of intellectuals, business leaders, and Cuban-American civic leaders, he helped found the Center for a Free Cuba, serving on its Research Council until his death in 2012. A noted scholar, sociologist, publisher, and author, he called attention to the Stalinist nature of Cuba’s revolutionary experiment in the early stages of the revolution.
In his many books, including the nine editions of Cuban Communism, and in his journal, Transaction, he shed light on the nature of tyrannical rule in Cuba and elsewhere. For him, those living in freedom, especially intellectuals, had a moral duty to help bring to an end everywhere the persecution of writers, poets, professors, workers and peasants.
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
11/19/1926 – 12/7/2006
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick was one of the founding members of the Center for a Free Cuba with the goal to oppose “the Marxist military junta in Havana and to help Cubans attain their God-given human rights.” Professor Kirkpatrick taught Political Science at Georgetown University and as a close friend of Senators Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Democrat, New York), Hubert Humphrey (Democrat, Minnesota), and Henry M. Jackson (Democrat, Washington) was involved in American politics. She was very much supportive of the American labor movement and the AFL-CIO’s efforts to promote labor rights around the world.
She became an advisor to then-Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, and after his election she was appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations, while also serving on the National Security Council. A well-known scholar, Dr. Kirkpatrick wrote many books, essays, and participated in numerous conferences and panel discussions. She travelled widely around the world meeting with numerous foreign ministers and heads of state.
Ambassador Jose Silverio Sorzano
11/9/1940 – 12/29/2020
Ambassador Sorzano was a university professor, diplomat, presidential adviser, and international businessman. He served on several government boards and commissions and was a long-standing member of the MasTec Inc. board of directors. He received numerous scholarships, fellowships, honors, and awards throughout his life. He always described his life as The American Story.
He came to the US at the age of 20, with his basketball shoes (he was on the Cuban national championship team) and five dollars. His first job was mopping floors in the Key Bridge Marriott kitchen where he was provided a free meal and an opportunity to learn English. In order to understand what had happened to his birth country he enrolled at Georgetown University earning a degree in international affairs and then a PhD in political philosophy from Georgetown.
He became a US citizen in 1972, one of the proudest days of his life. For 18 years, he was an Associate Professor of Government at Georgetown University, specializing in political theory. José also served as US Peace Corps Director in Colombia, South America which during his tenure became the second largest Peace Corps program in the world. In 1981, President Reagan appointed him US Ambassador to the United Nations as US Representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council and then as Deputy Permanent Representative, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Ambassador Sorzano served for five years.
In 1987, he was appointed to the National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President (Ronald Reagan) and Senior Director for Latin American Affairs serving for almost two years. After leaving government service, he was the President of the Cuban American National Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting a free, independent, and democratic Cuba, after which he established his own international consulting firm specializing in joint ventures between US and foreign firms.