Cuban war hero Arnaldo Ochoa and three other former army officers were executed by firing squad Thursday for shipping tons of drugs into the United States, the official Cuban news agency said.
The executions ended a court-martial and appeal process that revealed the army and Interior Ministry ring engaged in drug trafficking, black marketeering, smuggling and other crimes.The Prensa Latina news agency said the four were executed at dawn. In addition to Ochoa, a former army general, they included former Col. Antonio de la Guardia Font; former Maj. Armado Padron; and former Capt. Jorge Martinez.
They were sentenced to death last week, stripped of their military ranks and thrown out of the Communist Party.
Ochoa, 57, fought in the guerrilla war that brought Fidel Castro to power and was made a Hero of the Revolution, Cuba's highest honor, for heading Cuba's 50,000-man expedition in Angola and an earlier one to Ethiopia. Ochoa also headed a mission to Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista government.
The defendants appealed their sentences to the Council of State. The council's 29 members voted unanimously Sunday to uphold the death sentences.
Castro, giving a five-hour summation to the panel, said the four must face a firing squad to restore faith in the Cuban revolution, ensure discipline in the armed forces and set an example for others. In addition to drug trafficking, they were convicted of treason and other crimes.
The court-martial also handed out prison sentences ranging from 10 years to 30 years to 10 other defendants in the case.