Manuel Artime

Manuel Francisco Artime Buesa, M.D. (29 January 1932 – 18 November 1977) was a Cuban-American who at one time was a member of the rebel army of Fidel Castro but later was the political leader of Brigade 2506 land forces in the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961.

Manuel Artime was the nephew of popular Cuban poet José Ángel Bueza, and was raised as a devout Catholic by Jesuits. In 1957 he became a member of the Radical Liberation Party (PLR), a Christian democratic group. He graduated as a doctor and planned to become a psychiatrist.

In December 1958 he joined the rebel army of Fidel Castro and took part in offensives against the forces of the Batista regime at Guisa, Maffo and Palma Soriano. In January 1959, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Artime was appointed second in command of Zone 0-22 in the Ciro Redondo district in the Manzanillo region at INRA (Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria). In that post, under Major Humberto Sorí Marin, Minister of Agriculture, and Rogelio Gonzalez Corzo (alias "Francisco Gutierrez"), Director of Agriculture, Artime promoted the work of the Comandos Rurales (Rural Commandos), a kind of Peace Corps composed of young people, most of whom belonged to the University Catholic Group (ACU) in Havana. Both Sorí Marin and Rogelio Gonzalez were captured on the eve of the Bay of Pigs Invasion and executed on 20 April 1961. Artime was also a professor at the Havana Military Academy. During 1959, Artime formed the Movimiento de Recuperación Revolucionaria (MRR) (in English - Movement to Recover the Revolution) that included Rogelio Gonzalez Corzo, Higinio "Nino" Diaz, Jorge Sotus, Sergio Sanjenis, Rafael Rivas Vazquez, Carlos Rodriguez Santana, some of whom were already exiled in Mexico.

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