Vol. 79/No. 10      March 23, 2015

Villavicencio has appeared at several recent public events, often together with the Cuban Five revolutionaries, three of whom were released in December after more than 16 years in U.S. prisons. His book is one of the most sought-after titles among working people here.

Villavicencio, today a colonel in Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), took part in two of Cuba’s internationalist combat missions in the 1970s, first in Angola and then in Ethiopia. In the Horn of Africa in 1977–78, Cuban volunteers helped defend Ethiopia — where an anti-feudal land reform and deepening anti-imperialist struggle was unfolding — from a U.S.-backed Somali invasion.

In 1978 he was wounded in combat, captured by invading Somali forces and imprisoned in Lanta Buur, Somalia. A 20-year-old lieutenant at the head of an artillery scouting unit, Villavicencio was the only survivor from his unit. He was held in solitary confinement, without contact with Cuban representatives or his family, for the first five years. In the book he describes how he withstood the isolation, the brutal conditions, and the anguish of not knowing what happened to the rest of his unit or even the outcome of the war.

Hundreds of soldiers, sailors — including dozens of young cadets — and FAR officers attended the presentation, which launched the third edition of the book, issued by Verde Olivo, publishing house of the FAR.

“It was his human qualities of humbleness and kindness” that allowed him to survive the long isolation and prison conditions, Army Corps General Alvaro López Miera, the FAR’s chief of staff, told the gathering. “That’s what makes him equally qualified to command a BM-21 artillery unit and to write children’s books.” Several books of children stories by Villavicencio were also on sale at the book fair as well as his first novel written for adults.

In the Lanta Buur prison, Villavicencio shared medicines and other essential items he received from Cuba with Ethiopian prisoners of war and Somali political prisoners, often without them knowing the items were from him.

In 1988, when the Somali government agreed to repatriate thousands of Ethiopian prisoners, Villavicencio was not among those slated to be released. When his fellow inmates learned this, they refused to leave unless he went with them.

In August 1988, as a result of the Cuban government’s efforts and the solidarity he had won from fellow prisoners, Villavicencio was on the first Red Cross-chartered flight out of Somalia together with 176 Ethiopians.

Villavicencio said his book had been dedicated and sent to the Cuban Five when they were in U.S. prisons. Four of the five were present at the event, and Villavicencio invited René González to take the floor.

“Orlando’s book was an inspiration for us in prison,” González said. “If he had been capable of resisting in Somalia, we knew that we too had to resist.”

It was also one of the most popular books of those the Cuban Five circulated among fellow inmates, he added.
 
 
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Cuba’s internationalism in Africa discussed at book fair
 
 
 
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