Ileana de la Guardia, a Cuban neuropsychologist residing in Paris and daughter of Colonel Antonio "Tony" de la Guardia Font from Minint, spoke with CiberCuba about the emotional impact her father's execution by the Castro regime left her on July 13, 1989, when she was studying Psychology at the university. "No one is prepared to lose their parents, especially when you are still young and your parents are young. My father was 51 years old," she said.
When asked by journalist Tania Costa about how she experienced those moments, Ileana de la Guardia responded calmly: "For me and for the whole family, it was very difficult, very hard." She also clarified that the blow was particularly brutal due to the conditions in which it occurred, in a country without real legal guarantees. "When this happens suddenly, when one lives in Cuba, where we know there is not enough legal protection, it is a very strong emotional shock."
Tony de la Guardia was executed alongside the FAR general Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez, Captain Jorge Martínez Valdés, and Major Amado Padrón Trujillo, within the framework of the so-called Cause Number 1 of 1989, a military process in which the regime officially accused them of drug trafficking and treason. The death sentences were issued just a week before the executions. The entire process lasted one month, from June 12, 1989, when they received the order to report to the Ministry of the Interior under the pretense of being congratulated, until they were executed at Baracoa beach on July 13 of that same year.
Ileana de la Guardia has previously reported that the trial was conducted summarily, without effective legal defense, and that the drug trafficking charge against her father did not even carry the death penalty in the Cuban Penal Code that was in effect at the time. She has also recounted that Fidel Castro visited her father in prison and promised him that "everything would stay in the family" if he confessed, a promise that was never fulfilled.
In this interview with CiberCuba, Ileana de la Guardia described the process as a deliberate operation of image destruction. "It was a process where, from start to finish, they aimed to humiliate them and degrade their image to justify the executions," she stated.
Being the firstborn imposed an additional burden on her. "The fact of being the oldest daughter gave me the strength to continue supporting the family and facing the situation, because I saw it as a responsibility," she explained.
The twin brother of his father, Patricio de la Guardia, was tried in Case 2 along with the then Minister of the Interior, José Abrantes, and sentenced to 30 years in prison, a sentence he completed in June 2019.
In the interview, journalist Tania Costa explained that the idea of discussing that dark episode in Cuba's history arose from a post that Ileana de la Guardia published on Father's Day. "Upon reading it, I thought, 'We need to address this when we are both ready to talk about such a sensitive topic,'" Costa explained at the beginning of the conversation.
Ileana de la Guardia is a member of Cuba Próxima and the president of the Cuban Democratic Convergence DFrente, an opposition platform that brings together various civil and political organizations of Cubans in exile. In December 2016, following the death of Fidel Castro, she summarized her position in a single sentence: "Fidel Castro ordered the execution of my father; I do not regret his death."
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