Jorge Mas Canosa

Jorge Lincoln Mas Canosa (Santiago de Cuba, September 21, 1939 – Coral Gables, Florida, November 24, 1997) was a Cuban-American businessman and political activist, widely regarded as the most influential anti-Castro leader among Cuban exiles in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s.

Early Life and Exile

Born in Santiago de Cuba into a middle-class family, Mas Canosa grew up amid Cuba's political upheaval. At age 14, he was briefly arrested for his role in an anti-Batista radio broadcast. His father, who was linked to the Batista government, sent him to study at Presbyterian Junior College in Maxton, North Carolina, where he learned English and studied the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.

He returned to Cuba in 1959, days after Fidel Castro seized power, and briefly attended law school at Oriente University. When it became clear that Castro's government was not democratic, he was implicated in anti-government activities and forced into exile. He settled in Miami, Florida, where he joined the Brigade 2506 and participated in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. He was later commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Business Career

Upon arriving in exile, Mas Canosa survived by doing blue-collar work — washing dishes in Miami Beach, working at the Miami River docks, and delivering milk. In 1969, he partnered with the owners of a struggling telephone construction company, which he renamed Church & Tower. Using his growing reputation in the exile community to secure lines of credit, he turned the company into a multimillion-dollar business with $40 million in annual revenues by 1980.

When his sons joined the business, Church & Tower became MasTec, Inc. (NYSE: MTZ), one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure companies in North America. At the time of his death, Mas Canosa was one of the wealthiest Hispanic businessmen in the United States, with a net worth estimated at over $100 million.

Political Leadership and Anti-Castro Activism

In 1981, at the suggestion of Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor Richard Allen, Mas Canosa co-founded the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) with Raúl Masvidal and Carlos Salman, which he led until his death. Under his leadership, CANF became one of the most powerful ethnic lobbying organizations in Washington, exercising enormous influence over U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba.

He was the driving force behind Radio Martí and TV Martí, U.S. government-funded stations broadcasting independent news into Cuba, and was named chairman of their advisory board by President Reagan. He was also a key architect of the Helms-Burton Act (1996), which tightened the U.S. embargo against Cuba, and the Cuban Democracy Act of 1994.

In 1996, he took part in a historic televised debate with Ricardo Alarcón, then president of Cuba's National Assembly, broadcast by CBS-TeleNoticias.

Personal Life and Legacy

In 1961, he married Irma Santos, his childhood sweetheart from Santiago de Cuba. Together they had three sons: Jorge Mas Santos, Juan Carlos Mas, and José Mas, who continued both their father's business and political legacies. In 1997, he purchased Miami's historic Freedom Tower — the former gateway for thousands of Cuban refugees entering the United States — and restored it to its original splendor.

Mas Canosa died on November 24, 1997, from lung cancer. His funeral drew thousands of mourners including prominent political figures. Today, a middle school in Miami-Dade County bears his name. Cuban opposition leader José Daniel Ferrer described him in 2016 as "the second José Martí of the Cuban exile."

His son Jorge Mas Santos continues his legacy as chairman of CANF and is also the managing owner of Inter Miami CF, the soccer club that signed Lionel Messi in 2023.