Posted on 05/06/2005 9:41:38 AM PDT by Borges
MIAMI - Rafael L. Diaz-Balart, a Cuban exile politician who fervently opposed Cuban President Fidel Castro and fathered two U.S. congressmen, died Friday after a long battle with leukemia. He was 79.
Diaz-Balart died at his home in Key Biscayne with his four sons - Rafael, Jose and U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart - wife Mercedes and her daughter, Belen, by his side, a family spokesman said. A funeral mass is scheduled for Saturday at St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Miami.
"His death constitutes another reason to continue to fight for Cuba's freedom, which was the ideal of his life, and of so many Cubans who have died longing for free Cuba," said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla.
The elder Diaz-Balart was an attorney and politician who rose to the position of majority leader in the Cuban Republic's House of Representatives before Castro seized power in the 1959 communist revolution. After leaving Cuba, he founded the White Rose Party that was dedicated to fighting the Castro regime and also was a diplomat for Costa Rica and legal adviser for Spain.
A sister, Mirta Diaz-Balart, was Castro's first wife and the mother of his first child, Fidel Felix "Fidelito" Castro Diaz-Balart, who was born Sept. 1, 1949. Castro and Mirta Diaz-Balart divorced in 1955.
Castro calls these people 'worms'.
Sounds like the good Cubans have lost a good patriot. He fought long and will be remembered.
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