Manuel Piñeiro Lozada

Fighter who was part of Column No. 6 Frank País of the Rebel Army.

Born in Matanzas, with the nickname "Redbeard," he was a Cuban politician and military officer, one of the main figures of the Cuban Revolution as a commander and person responsible for building Cuban security apparatus and the expansion of radical left-wing groups in Latin America.

Manuel Piñeiro Lozada was born in the province of Matanzas, coming to this blessed land in the midst of a strong storm and hurricane-force winds and intense rain, his mother who could not wait for the midwife's arrival, brought him into the world on the counter of the bar owned by the family and aided by her husband and some neighbors who had had past experience.

The fruit of the marriage formed by Serafín and Elisa both of Spanish origin, who had arrived in Cuba in the 1910s.
Piñeiro came from a well-to-do family in his native province, he completed his high school studies in 1952.

On March 10 of that fateful year, General Fulgencio Batista seized power with a bloody coup d'état and Manolo, as his companions called him, became involved in student protests for which he stood out against the repressive organs of the dictatorship, his worried mother and at his insistence sent him in 1953 to study in the United States, but he could not bear the distance from his homeland and returned in 1955 and joined the revolutionary movement of July 26, and by decision of the Revolutionary Directorate they appointed him chief of action of the Youth and Student Brigades of the Province of Matanzas.

Upon his return from the United States where he married Lorna Burdsall, a young dance dancer, who adapted very well in Cuba and not only gave him the joy of giving him a son, Khalil, but also played a very decisive and brave role and accompanied him in some actions during the struggle against the dictatorship, including the transfer of some weapons, which he had to store in his house in La Víbora and then for not having much confidence where they lived, they went to live in Miramar, where they took the heavy weaponry, which ended up in the hands of Frank País in Santiago de Cuba and he had it sent to the Sierra Maestra.

He was detained by Batista's security organisms and filed for his subversive activities. He continued his clandestine activities in Havana until, pursued by the police, he decided to go up to the Sierra Maestra to join the column commanded by Fidel Castro.

In March 1958, he is recognized for his merits and personally chosen by Fidel Castro as an officer to integrate the creation of the II Eastern Front Frank País under the command of Raúl Castro. In this front he participates in several encounters with Cuban Army troops.

In the II Front, Piñeiro quickly distinguished himself for his versatility, intelligence and industriousness, so the Head of the Second Front began to give him various management tasks. Regarding the work performed, Commander Belarmino Castilla (Aníbal) expressed: "He developed a very active work in the command. The authority and prestige that he earned united to his jovial character, made him worthy of the trust that Commander Raúl Castro placed in him." Piñeiro was an inseparable mainstay of Raúl; a fighter capable of uniting, attracting, organizing and controlling, an unblemished man.

For his part, Commander Augusto Martínez Sánchez, member of the command of the II Front, notes "Piñeiro was promoted to captain and appointed territorial inspector and member of the central command; he was tireless and moved throughout all the territory we occupied. The 'Gallego,' as we called him, was the necessary reconnaissance to detect everything that could be an element of political and military importance in the development of the war. His presence was felt in the most dangerous places and brought security, firmness and confidence."

Later he was appointed Chief of Personnel and Inspection, which included the Intelligence Service and the Rebel Police. In this position, Piñeiro had subordinated to this direction the sections of Radio, Codes and Military Maps, Personnel, Radio and Communications, territorial inspection and the section of Rebel Police and Intelligence. In other words, he concentrated everything related to the most secret aspects of the war, but also with high political content.

During the battles for the taking of Santiago de Cuba, he is promoted to Commander of the Cuban Revolution. After the triumph of the Revolution he is appointed Head of the Military Plaza of Santiago de Cuba.

It is at this time that he was first captured by cameras where his red beard was observed, which explained why he was called that by the rebel troops.

Later he was transferred to Havana, where he performed various functions for the creation of the intelligence and security organisms of the Cuban revolutionary system. In mid-1959 he joined the Staff of the Rebel Army in Havana, briefly passed through the PNR and in 1960, under the name of Celestino Martínez, as noted in the passport he used on that trip, completely shaved and without his striking red beard, he left for Moscow and joined, in the utmost secrecy regarding his identity, an Intelligence course at the KGB school.

On June 6, 1961, he was appointed Vice Minister of the Ministry of Interior and head of the so-called Technical Vice Ministry, an organ in charge of developing intelligence policy in Latin America. He was in charge of the M Direction of Intelligence and attention to National Liberation movements, in that mission he fulfilled a very important task of guaranteeing the plans of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, the first being Operation Shadow, in whose organization and preparation Jorge Ricardo Massetti was involved, in the formation of the Guerrilla Army of the People (EGP) in Salta, Argentina and later the operation of Che's entry into the Congo in April 1965, and the Operation Camilo Cienfuegos in Bolivia and maintaining communication with Che and his detachment of fighters.

The M Direction directed by Piñeiro, was divided in 1970 into two different fronts. The General Directorate of Intelligence (DGI), under the direction of Commander Joaquín Méndez Comiche. And The General Directorate of National Liberation (DGLN) under the direction of Piñeiro, with the rank of Technical Vice Ministry, until 1974. At the proposal of Fidel, at the end of 1974 the Department of Americas of the Central Committee of the Communist Party was created, a position he held until 1992.

In 1965 he was appointed member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, a position he held until 1997. That same year, he received in Havana Markus Wolf, Director of the Stasi, the intelligence organ of the German Democratic Republic, which advised the formation of the General Directorate of Intelligence of Cuba.

In early 1975, he began to direct the Department "Americas" of the Cuban Communist Party. From 1997 onwards, he retired from all positions and devoted himself to writing and editing books and studies on the Cuban Revolution.

On March 11, 1998, after receiving a tribute for the 40 years since the creation of the II Eastern Front, he suffered an accident while driving home, the car he was driving crashed into a tree, losing his life. For his great human sense, Redbeard had freed his driver because the activity where he was to attend, a reception at the residence of the Mexican ambassador, was near his home.

He was married to Chilean Marta Harnecker, whom he had met in 1972 and with whom he had a daughter, Camila. He was buried in the Colón Cemetery, in Havana.

Mauricio Vicent, correspondent for the Spanish newspaper El País, summed up Piñeiro's personality with these words: "Hero to his men in Cuba, hated to death by his ideological enemies in Miami, United States and throughout the continent, Piñeiro was an extremely skilled strategist, with humor and intelligence out of the ordinary, qualities that his worst adversaries recognized and feared." A fervent revolutionary, he "maintained until the end that Guevara's thinking still had validity in Latin America and that the guerrilla in Bolivia could have triumphed."

Luis Suárez Salazar compiled texts by Piñeiro that he published in Ocean Press in collaboration with Ediciones Tricontinental: Manuel Barbarroja Piñeiro. Che Guevara y la revolución latinoamericana.