Miami, Apr 5 (EFE).- With one month left to conclude the conviction for marijuana trafficking for which he has spent 39 of his 83 years of life Imprisoned in the United States, Cuban Antonio Bascaro has the task of "unmasking" "Che" Guevara high on his list of things to do when he is free, according to what he tells Efe.
Considered the convict who has served the longest sentence for marijuana in the United States, Bascaro has just received the good news that his release from a Miami prison will be on May 1 and not June 8, as initially planned.
That day he will fulfill his debt to society for having participated in the trafficking of some 272.4 tons of marijuana in the United States as part of a drug trafficking organization.
"Thank God I will be a free man again, after more than 39 years of impeccable imprisonment for a non-violent marijuana conspiracy," he said in an email interview.
The initial sentence of this former Cuban military pilot who went into exile after the 1959 revolution and participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 was 60 years in prison, but it was later reduced for good behavior.
He does not talk much about this topic, but his daughter, Myra Bascaro, told Efe that his extensive sentence was due to his refusal to denounce other drug traffickers during the war on drugs in the 1980s, when he was arrested in Guatemala. where he had gone into exile and started a family.
"The first thing in my future plan is to get closer to my grandchildren and help them with my knowledge of the different stages of my life. Honestly, we hardly know each other and I want to strengthen that part of my life," he told Efe.
Bascaro is an icon for organizations in favor of the decriminalization of a substance that is already legal in many states of the country, not only for therapeutic but recreational purposes.
"Although it may seem incredible," he writes in English in one of his emails to Efe, "I have never used drugs, not even cigarettes, and I think it is a little late for me (to try marijuana," he answers with humor to a question.
"I don't know the effects (marijuana) produces, but I think the penalties are excessive," he says, convinced that marijuana will never be decriminalized at the federal level.
The risk that before he is free he will be deported to Guatemala is something he knows and fears.
According to what he told Efe in an email, he does not want to return to that Central American country because his life would be in "danger" due to the presence there of "Cuban State Security" personnel, but he did sign his "voluntary deportation to Cuba" when "the political regime changes."
"I will try to stay in this country (USA) until I can return to mine, which I believe will soon be liberated, after Nicaragua and Venezuela," he said.
The prisoner, who walks with a cane due to recent back surgery, said he will be "quite active" when he regains his freedom, writing at least three books about Cuba and his imprisonment in the United States.
One of his "priorities" will be to "unmask" the Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-1967).
"He is considered a hero worldwide and was nothing more than a ruthless killer who murdered thousands in my country," he lamented.
The first three months after Fidel Castro took power (1959) he was detained as a prisoner of war in the Morro castle, which is next to the La Cabaña fort, where the Argentine revolutionary had his headquarters, he remembers.
"I suffered night and day with the continuous shootings, with the murder of prisoners without due process," says this octogenarian willing to print other t-shirts with the image of Che different from those sold today.
In his - he says - he will show his "true" face as a "mass murderer", for which he received the nickname of the "Cabin Jackal".
In addition, he explained that he will review in one of his books his fight against the Castro guerrillas in the mountains, his capture and imprisonment in 1959, his departure from Cuba and his subsequent participation as a pilot of Brigade 2506 in the invasion promoted by the United States to overthrow to Fidel Castro.
"I have been a prisoner of war, a military prisoner, a political prisoner, I was imprisoned in Cuba during 1959 and 1960 on multiple occasions and I left Cuba through the Uruguayan Embassy where I sought asylum, with my sights set on the training camps for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion," he said.
Bascaro stated that the military training he had in Cuba and the devotion to Saint Francis of Assisi now help him control his emotions and health a few weeks after his release, which he will celebrate with his two daughters and a son, who is a pilot like he.
He points out that the saint "taught him to accept what I cannot change, change what I can and be able to recognize both situations."
He will also write about "the conspiracy" that brought him to his current situation and about his "39 years in this country's federal system."
He explained that the books will be in Spanish and English, thanks to the certified translation of one of his two daughters, and will not contain "fantasies", since they are not "necessary" in his story. EFE
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