Julio Ernesto Camacho Aguilera

Cuban revolutionary combatant and politician. He took up arms against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and led a guerrilla group in the mountains of Guantánamo, later going underground.

He was among the main leaders of the failed Popular Uprising of September 5 in Cienfuegos and after the failure of the action managed to leave the city. He joined the Rebel Army and was recognized with the rank of Commander.

After the triumph of the Revolution he was appointed Minister in Charge of the National Transportation Corporation to bring order to that agency. He was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in several provinces. He served on the Political Bureau for more than a decade and was elected a member of the Central Committee at the VI Congress of the Party.

He was born at the Central Santa Lucía, today Rafael Freyre, in Oriente, but was raised from age five in Ermita, later Costa Rica, in the same province.

In 1955 he assaulted a powder magazine of the Ermita Sugar Company in search of explosives for the armed struggle against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. Later he was one of the leaders of Brotherhood No. 11 of the Guantánamo Railways, a member of the Orthodox Youth there and then of the Leadership of the 26 of July Movement.

During December 1956 and January 1957 he led a small guerrilla in the Guantánamo mountains, after having participated in the Santiago uprising of November 30, 1956, in support of the landing of the yacht Granma. His photograph in suit and tie circulated for his immediate capture and from that point on he became a clandestine combatant.

He had to take refuge in Guantánamo, together with Enrique Soto Gómez, coordinator of the 26 of July in that city, and he as chief of Action and Sabotage, the military branch of the organization on the plains.

He was organizing the second reinforcement in weapons and men for the Sierra Maestra, but was replaced by Paquito Cruz in Santiago de Cuba, because Frank País sent him to reorganize the struggle in Las Villas, where he became the provincial leader of Action and Sabotage.

After Frank's death in Santiago, his successor, René Ramos Latour, signed his appointment as Commander of the Militias of the 26 of July, in August 1957, on Villarena soil, subject to later approval by Fidel.

He fought with an M-1 automatic carbine during the Popular Uprising of September 5, commanding the militias of the 26 of July Movement and after the failure of the uprising managed to leave the city.

Esteban Ventura Novo arrested him on November 18, 1957 during a meeting in the Havana neighborhood of Buenavista with clandestine combatants from Pinar del Río. He was brutally tortured and lost mobility for some time, five ribs were broken, but they could not extract a single compromising piece of information from him. To mislead his torturers he only mentioned the names of the dead, the deserters, and those already fighting in the Sierra Maestra.

He went through three trials, but the main prosecutor—Joaquín Casillas Lumpuy—did not attend, so he momentarily received conditional freedom. They could not prove his participation in the Cienfuegos uprising, but they could in the one of November 30, 1956, for which he suffered imprisonment in Boniato Prison, in Oriente, in the same cell with Armando Hart and Javier Pazos.

He joined the Rebel Army in the Sierra Maestra and was part of Column 13. From there he continued working on the infiltration of clandestine combatants in the mountains and was confirmed in the rank of Commander.

When the Revolution triumphed in January 1959 he was appointed intervening delegate of the National Transportation Corporation with the rank of Minister, to bring order to that agency. Under his command at the National Transportation Corporation, the following companies were intervened: Cubana de Aviación SA, Carga por Avión SA, Aeropuertos Internacionales SA, Empresa Aérea Interamericana SA, Viajes a Plazos SA, Cuba Aeropostal SA, and Aerovías Q SA and other entities and airport operators, which in practice constituted a monopoly dedicated to carrying out fraudulent operations for the benefit of friends, officials and military personnel loyal to the ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista.

He was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in several provinces; he served on the Political Bureau for more than a decade and was elected a member of the Central Committee at the VI Congress of the Party.

Today he is Director of the Office for the Comprehensive Development of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula.

During his revolutionary trajectory, Commander Julio Camacho Aguilera has received various medals, decorations, and national and international recognitions: from the Council of State, from the Communist Party of Cuba, from the Revolutionary Armed Forces, from the Ministry of the Interior and from mass organizations. Among these awards are:

Provincial Recognition from the Territorial Delegation of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Pinar del Río, 2004 "For his outstanding work in Environmental Affairs"
Recognition for his personal dedication to the sustainable use of the protected area Guanahacabibes Peninsula
National Environmental Award, 2007
Recognition for "Contributing with modesty and talent to making the Round Tables the Political University of the People" signed by Fidel Castro Ruz, 2005
Title of Doctor Honoris Causa in Political Sciences from the University of Pinar del Río, 2002.