Roland Masferrer

Rolando Masferrer y Landa

Roland "Tigre" Masferrer was a very complex person. One of his grand nephew Marc Masferrer writes:

"y great-uncle Rolando Masferrer.(:)Lawyer. Poet. Journalist. Communist Party member. Spanish Civil War veteran. Expelled Communist Party member. Enemy of Fidel Castro. Senator. Fighter. That’s him. I’m sure some, including the folks in charge in Havana, have a few other choice ways to describe Rolando. Thief. Gangster. Murderer."

Masferrer, after he was wounded in battle, became an famous assassin in Spain. It was said that his victims last memories were hearing a lame man following them dragging his feet. After he came back from Spain he made a public break with the Cuban communist party at a meeting at the Soviet Embassy in Havana while talking to Ernest Hemingway. He participated in the action group struggles that soiled Cuba's reputatoon in the Autentico Years. In 1947 he participated in the massive,but frustrated attempt by the Caribbean Legion to overthrow the Dictator of the Dominican Republic. After the March 10th 1952 Batista coup, he first thought to fight Fulgencio Batista, then decided to join him. He developed a murderous repressive force "Los Tigres de Masferrer," and yet he was not right wing his plan to suppress the guerrillas of Fidel Castro was to buy the huge mountain Sevilla Hacienda and divide up among the local montunos so as to give a base to resist the Castro Forces.

After Masferrer fled Cuba in January 1959, he made several attempts to overthrow Castro. These attempts failed because his misdeeds plus virulent pro-Castro propaganda had left him with the most unsavory of reputations. In Halloween 1975 he was blown up in Miami. As usual in these cases it is not known precisely who did it, some say it was disgruntled criminal rivals, although it is common and most logical to blame Castro.