1. Orlando Bosch Avila was a Cuban exile militant, who headed the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, described by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as a terrorist organization.
41 Facts About Orlando Bosch
1. 2.
Orlando Bosch worked as a doctor in Santa Clara Province in the 1950s, but moved to Miami in 1960 after he stopped supporting the Cuban Revolution.
3.
Between 1961 and 1968 Orlando Bosch was arrested several times in the United States for attacks directed at the Cuban government, and briefly collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency.
4.
Orlando Bosch was jailed in Florida in 1968 for a bazooka attack on a Polish freighter, but violated parole and fled to Venezuela in 1974 at the invitation of fellow exile militant Luis Posada Carriles.
5.
Orlando Bosch founded CORU in 1976 along with Posada and other Cuban exiles.
6.
Posada escaped from prison, while Orlando Bosch was acquitted by a Venezuelan military court in 1986.
7.
Orlando Bosch Avila was born on 18 August 1926 in the village of Potrerillo, 240 kilometres east of Havana.
8.
Orlando Bosch's mother was a school teacher, and his father owned a restaurant.
9.
In 1946 Orlando Bosch enrolled in the University of Havana medical school, where he befriended the future Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
10.
Orlando Bosch was president of the medical school student body while Castro was head of the law school student body.
11.
Orlando Bosch then returned to Cuba to work as a doctor in Santa Clara Province.
12.
Orlando Bosch covertly organized for Castro's guerilla war against the Batista government.
13.
In 1960 less than one-and-a-half years after Castro overthrew Batista, Orlando Bosch stopped supporting the Cuban Revolution, and moved to Miami with his wife Myriam, a fellow medical school graduate.
14.
The couple divorced ten years later, when Orlando Bosch was in prison.
15.
Orlando Bosch began working for a hospital in Coral Gables, Florida, where he held the position of assistant director.
16.
Orlando Bosch had left Cuba in July 1960 after helping to organize a failed anti-Castro rebellion in the Escambray Mountains, and continued participating in anti-Castro activities after moving to Miami.
17.
Orlando Bosch helped organize the Movimiento Insurreccional de Recuperacion Revolucionaria, which conducted attacks on factories and sugar mills in Cuba, and claimed to be responsible for 11 bombing attacks against government property.
18.
From January to November 1962, and again in November 1963, Orlando Bosch was in contact with the US Central Intelligence Agency.
19.
Orlando Bosch was fired from his job for keeping explosives on the hospital property, and was arrested several times for his involvement in a series of plots.
20.
Orlando Bosch was not convicted for his activities until 1968, when he launched an attack on a Polish freighter.
21.
Orlando Bosch was charged with sending telegrams to the governments of Britain and Mexico, threatening to destroy ships from those countries.
22.
Orlando Bosch was sentenced to ten years in prison; delivering the judgement, the judge stated that Orlando Bosch had "long professed the use of violence to achieve his aims in flagrant disregard of the laws of the United States".
23.
Orlando Bosch served four years of his sentence before being released on parole in 1972.
24.
Claude Kirk, then the Governor of Florida, was among those who advocated for Orlando Bosch to receive early parole.
25.
Orlando Bosch had been invited to Venezuela by Luis Posada Carriles, another Cuban exile militant who was then serving as the head of DISIP, the Venezuelan intelligence service.
26.
Orlando Bosch stayed in a military safe house, and "lived quietly as an artist".
27.
When questioned, Orlando Bosch stated that his target was Andres Pascal Allende, nephew of previous Chilean President Salvador Allende.
28.
Orlando Bosch was deported to the Dominican Republic, where he founded the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, along with Posada, Gaspar Jimenez, and other Cuban exiles.
29.
The group, led by Orlando Bosch, first met in the Dominican Republic town of Bonao in June 1976, and laid plans for more than 50 bombings over the next year.
30.
Orlando Bosch returned on 23 September 1976, again traveling on a fraudulent passport.
31.
Orlando Bosch was given a hotel suite for his use, a DISIP identity card using the alias "Carlos Sucre", and a Venezuelan passport.
32.
Orlando Bosch was told that he could continue his activities, but that his targets needed to be outside Venezuela.
33.
Reich argued both that Orlando Bosch was innocent, and that his safety was threatened.
34.
Orlando Bosch was visited by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, investigating an allegation, which Orlando Bosch denied, that he had been in a room with Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.
35.
Orlando Bosch's case was eventually resolved in 1986, when he was acquitted: Ricardo and Lugo were each sentenced to 20 years in prison.
36.
Orlando Bosch spent his time in prison writing and painting, and on multiple occasions went on hunger strikes to protest his situation.
37.
Orlando Bosch flew to Miami on 16 February 1988, despite not possessing a visa.
38.
Orlando Bosch was allowed to return to his home in Miami, where he was required to have his phone tapped, his whereabouts monitored, to keep a visitors' log, and to not associate with militants.
39.
Orlando Bosch resumed painting, and used proceeds from the sales of his works to fund resistance to the Cuban government.
40.
Orlando Bosch formed an organization, named "Protagonist Party of the People", to raise money to buy weapons for the anti-Castro movement, violating the terms of his release in doing so.
41.
Orlando Bosch had considerable support among Cuban exiles in the US, and his funeral saw public demonstrations of mourning.