Gustavo Villoldo, Man Who Tracked Che For The CIA, Awarded $1 Billion In Lawsuit

MIAMI — A judge on Friday awarded more than $1 billion in damages against the Cuban government for the 1959 suicide of the father of a Cuban-American man who was involved in the CIA-backed capture and killing of revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Peter Adrien said he wanted to send a signal to Cuba's government with the huge damage award, which likely will prove difficult if not impossible to collect. But the attorney for Gustavo Villoldo, 76, and his younger brother, Alfredo, said his law firm would scour the globe for Cuban assets to satisfy the judgment.

"They finally get justice," said lawyer Jeremy Alters. "We will use every bit of our resources to collect this."

The award came in a lawsuit filed by Villoldo, who blamed Guevara, Fidel Castro and others for his father's 1959 suicide in Cuba. The family fled to the U.S. and Villoldo later took part in the CIA's Bay of Pigs invasion and was involved in catching Guevara in Bolivia.

Cuba's current government refused to respond to the lawsuit and offered no defense. It did not immediately reply to a request in Havana for comment.

Villoldo's father took his life by a sleeping pill overdose in February 1959, shortly after Fidel Castro, Guevara and the other communist revolutionaries seized power in Cuba. The elder Villoldo was a prominent Cuban businessman who also held U.S. citizenship and owned a major General Motors distributorship, a 33,000-acre ranch and several other holdings and properties.

The family was targeted soon after Castro took over as "lackeys of the United States and Yankee imperialists," according to the judge's ruling. The father was beaten, deprived of food, interrogated for days and repeatedly told he would be executed as a purported U.S. agent.

Soon after the man's release from jail, Guevara visited the elder Villoldo personally and forced him to choose either death by firing squad himself or the execution of his son, Alters said. He chose to die, then opted for suicide rather than giving Guevara and Castro the satisfaction of killing him.

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"The undisputed evidence at trial established that defendants' conduct rose to such a level of depravity that they caused Mr. Villoldo to take his life, and their actions are properly classified as torture," Adrien said in a seven-page decision.

The younger Villoldo joined the U.S. military and CIA, taking part in the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. A few years later, Villoldo was among a group hunting for Guevara, finally catching up with him in Bolivia in 1967. Guevara was subsequently executed and buried in Bolivia.

The lawsuit filed last year sought damages against the Cuban government, Fidel and Raul Castro and Guevara for wrongful death and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Adrien awarded nearly $1.2 billion: $393 million in economic damages suffered by the family; $393 million for pain and suffering; and $393 million in punitive damages.

The award dwarfs several other similar Cuban damage awards, including $400 million for the family of American Robert Fuller _ executed in October 1960 _ little of which has ever been paid

Some have fared better.

A New York federal judge in 2006 ordered payment of $91 million out of frozen Cuban accounts to the families of two men who died after the Bay of Pigs invasion, and in 2001 families collected $93 million from similar accounts for the 1996 downing of three Cuban exiles who flew Brothers to the Rescue planes that were shot down by Cuban MIG fighters.

Alters said any thaw in relations between Cuba and the U.S. should include satisfaction of judgments such as that awarded to Villoldos.

"They can't get away with torture and then expect to get back into the U.S. economy," he said.

Comments

[Enid]

Where are the photographs show us the photos.
The Cubans learned well at The University of the Americas.

[SiameseTrainer]

Now we know where to send all of those poor souls from abu Garaib and Guantanamo and the hundreds of mysteriously "rendered" to seek Justice. Judge Peter Adrien would rule in a fair, equal, and unbiased manner I am sure. Halliburton, Blackwater and KBR would end up being owned by the Iraqi's.

[NYC69]

That's ridiculous.

[slowtono]

Another judge who thinks himself as God. Who represented Cuba anyway? A defector!

[jonmonbuckeye]

Real easy to collect money. Award them exclusive license to the image of "Che". They can collect all royalties for unauthorized use. Then go after all remittances to Cuba.

[TakeSake]

I wonder if this will set precedent for people to sue the U.S. in 40 years for what happened in Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

[Mollabaji]

And in Vietnam, and Phillipines, Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and, and, and......

[Jose Quiles]

Let's not forget Puerto Rico. In 1898.

[chonus]

Good point.

[James Redmond]

With great respect to Gustavo Villoldo, and his judgment, long overdue, Judge Peter Adrien's 'signal to Cuba' may well set a monetary compensation precedent for the potential 'signals' to ourselves, regarding the suicides of innocent, or untried "detainees". What's the difference?

[ezeflyer]

Would Judge Adrien, now the darling of the Miami Mafia, give us a few bucks if we sue Bush/Cheney for lying and getting thousands of our troops killed?.

[NYC69]

Forget about the $. Let's get them tortured and locked up.

[mazzetta]

let see how many of this kind of sentences will ask USA to pay for people killed around the world, I think this is such an unwise political move that it'll backfire for sure

just think to iraqui people...

[RexOzone]

Viva Evo!!!
Viva Chavez.

[jonmonbuckeye]

You're an idiot.

[PazMundial]

And what those two clowns have to do here? Have you been in Venezuela and Bolivia lately?

That is a joke, right? 1Billion US$ for someone who committed suicide? How about the thousands who were murdered compliments of the CIA and US intervention all over the world. Remember Chile and Allende?

The Cubans always receive special treatment because they vote Republican. Let's see if a Guatemalan Indian would have had the same results if he had dared to sue the US because his family was executed by death squads trained and financed by our tax dollars via the CIA and the US Army.

And the torture issue? No shame here.

The Miami Cubans have been dictating policy for too long. They really believe that they own Miami.

[MadHeart]

They do. They bought it with cocaine.