Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz (July 8, 1926 in

Havana, Cuba Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

) was Chief of the Revolutionary Air Force of Cuba under

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

, before and after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. He is great-grandson of a sister of the Cuban national hero

José Martí José Julián Martí Pérez (; 28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895) was a Cuban nationalism, nationalist, poet, philosopher, essayist, journalist, translator, professor, and publisher, who is considered a Cuban national hero because of his role in ...

Life in Cuba

In 1957, Pedro Díaz Lanz joined Fidel Castro's rebel group in Santiago, Cuba. He was employed as a commercial pilot with the airline Aerovías Q. He later acted as head of the Revolutionary Air Force, and during 1958 he smuggled

weapons A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law ...

and ammunition from

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and Florida into Cuba by air.Thomas, Hugh. 1971, 1986. The Cuban Revolution. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. (Shortened version of Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom, includes all history 1952-1970) After the Cuban Revolution on 1 January 1959, he was confirmed as head of the new Revolutionary Air Force as well as Castro's personal pilot. Within months, he became vocal about his opposition to the influence of communists on the new revolutionary government. On 29 June 1959, Fidel Castro relieved him of his post, and he left immediately by Revolutionary Air Force airplane he appropriated from a Cuban base under his command and flew to Homestead Air Force Base in Florida with his second wife and 3 of his six children, and reportedly with

Frank Sturgis Frank Anthony Sturgis (December 9, 1924 – December 4, 1993), born Frank Angelo Fiorini, was one of the five Watergate scandal, Watergate burglars whose capture led to the end of the presidency of Richard Nixon. He served in several branches ...

, a fellow anti-communist.Szulc, Tad. 1986. Fidel - A Critical Portrait. Hutchinson.

Life after Cuba

On 14 July 1959, Díaz was interviewed by the US Senate Internal Security subcommittee, where he gave out the first account of Fidel's planned move towards communism. On 21 October 1959 he carried out one of his most notorious acts, flying a twin-engined bomber (variously reported as a B-25 or B-26) over Havana while dropping anti-communist leaflets, along with his brother Marcos Diaz Lanz. Pedro Diaz Lanz piloted and Marcos Diaz Lanz threw the leaflets down from an open bomb hatch. The unsuccessful gunfire from armed forces on the ground caused injuries and deaths, leading to unsubstantiated reports of bombs being dropped from the aircraft. By April 1960, he was recruited by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

and became a member of Operation 40, a group of CIA operatives who specialized in carrying out secret anti-Castro assassinations and acts of sabotage. Then on May 27 of 1960, the ''Miami Herald'' published a list of names of pilots who were placed on a U.S. Government 'Blacklist' thereby prohibiting them from flying to Cuba; on that list was Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz. Díaz committed suicide with a gunshot wound to the chest in 2008 at the age of 81 after being diagnosed with a fatal illness.El Nuevo Herald (2008)

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External links

Judiciary Hearings of Communist Threats to America Through the Caribbean

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lanz, Pedro Luis Diaz 1926 births 2008 suicides 2008 deaths Cuban emigrants to the United States Suicides by firearm in Florida Commercial aviators American anti-communists

Life in Cuba

Life after Cuba

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