Humberto Sorí Marin

Humberto Sorí Marín (1915 in Cuba – 1961 in Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban revolutionary. After the Cuban Revolution in January 1959, he served as minister of agriculture, but resigned in May 1959. Shortly before the Bay of Pigs Invasion, he was arrested after landing in Cuba with arms and explosives, and was executed after the invasion.

In the early 1950s, Sorí Marín was a professional lawyer and a member of Partido Auténtico (the Authentic Party), a Cuban political party with a nationalistic ideology.

In 1957, he joined the 26th of July Movement in the Sierra Maestra mountains. In 1958, he helped Fidel Castro to draft laws that would be followed by the rebel army, and intended to be introduced later into government. The first law authorized summary courts-martial, and penalties included execution for crimes of murder, arson and looting; the law was signed on 11 February 1958. On 10 October 1958, Sorí Marin assisted Castro in the passing of Law No. 2, that promoted a boycott against a presidential election due on 3 November 1958. He was instrumental in passing Law No. 3, that promoted agrarian reform, a policy originally espoused by Castro in 1953. He served in the rebel army with the rank of major, and by December 1958 had been promoted to comandante, with the title of Judge Advocate General.

After the success of the Cuban Revolution on 1 January 1959, he was appointed minister of agriculture, under prime minister José Miró Cardona and president Manuel Urrutia Lleó. Sorí Marín was the chief judge in the 1959 war crimes trials of Havana. On 23 January 1959, alongside two other judges, he presided over the televised trial of Major Jesús Sosa Blanco. On 13 February, Fidel Castro was appointed prime minister, and ordered a re-trial for Sosa Blanco after unfavourable worldwide reactions. At a re-trial on 18 February, Sorí Marín again pronounced a death sentence on Sosa Blanco, that was carried out within hours.

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