Cuban Dissident Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo Dies

Cuban revolutionary turned opposition activist Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo died on Friday at the age of 77 in a Havana hospital.
"Cuba cannot continue to corner itself, trying to convince the world that there is democracy here when a one-party system will never be a democracy," said the Spanish-born Gutierrez-Menoyo to BBC News after he grew disappointed with the Castro regime.

Though he fought as a rebel against then-dictator Fulgencio Batista, Gutierrez-Menoyo led a failed uprising five years after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.  This would lead to his imprisonment for 22 years before being freed by request of the government of Spain.     

While exiled in south Florida, Gutierrez-Menoyo subsequently created the "Cambio Cubano" movement aimed at promoting change in Cuba via dialogue.  Numerous Cuban exile community leaders interviewed by EFE praised Gutierrez-Menoyo's convictions yet disagreed with his methods: