John Martino

Like most revolutionary regimes, Castro's government worked assiduously to root out counterrevolutionaries and agents of countries opposed to the revolution. Thousands were incarcerated for long terms on the slightest suspicion, and many of them were guilty of nothing more than political naivete. Most were confined in rather benign conditions while they were re-educated as to the aims of the revolution, and were released when they demonstrated that they had been rehabilitated. Those who were judged to be a serious threat to Castro's regime, however, were subjected to more stringent incarceration. The worst offenders were sentenced to the Isle of Pines, the Cuban version of Alcatraz prison, where they suffered horribly.

John Martino was an American electrical engineer who did contract work for various gambling establishments in Cuba. In 1959 he unwittingly agreed to deliver a coded message to a member...