Carlos Alberto Montaner Says Goodbye to Radio Due to Parkinson's Disease

June 26, 2022

Renowned Cuban journalist Carlos Alberto Montaner announced that he was retiring from radio due to health problems.

In an emotional letter sent to his listeners of the radio program called El Sol de la Mañana, from RCC Media, the 79-year-old intellectual said that he suffered from Parkinson's and that the disease brings associated difficulties with speech.

"Why am I interrupting my own radio program. Simple, due to health problems. I have Parkinson's," he explained.

The letter was read on the station and shared on the blog of the Academy of History of Cuba in Exile.

Montaner said in the letter that for now the disease has allowed him to continue writing.

"For now Parkinson's has allowed me to write, I hope it remains. There has been medication for several decades that keeps the body functioning but there is still no cure, although the Israelis are working on it and it seems that the definitive answer will come through stem cells," he commented.

Carlos Alberto Montaner was born on April 3, 1943 in Havana. He is a writer, journalist, and politician and has published around 30 books.

As a journalist, he has collaborated with major media outlets in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. He has also worked as an analyst for CNN en Español.

Some of his most notable works are the novels The Colonel's Wife, Goodbye Again, and Time of Scoundrels.

In December 1960, when he was only 17 years old, Fidel Castro's regime detained him along with 3 other teenagers and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for participating in resistance organizations against the regime.

In 1961 he was able to escape from the juvenile detention facility and took refuge in the Honduras embassy, which allowed him to go into exile, protected by diplomats and provided with a safe conduct pass.

Below is the farewell letter from the renowned Cuban intellectual:

Dear friends, this is a public letter.

For more than ten years, twice a week, the most current events of reality were being reflected. Sometimes those facts were examined with passionate rigor, other times with a certain detachment, but in all instances the truth prevailed, my truth, without any other interest or intention mediating.

I have never felt the interference of a programming director or anyone else. I have said everything I have wanted to say. So then, why am I interrupting my own radio program. Simple, due to health problems. I have Parkinson's.

Until now it is a disease without a cure. When I was young I believed the disease only manifested itself as involuntary movements, but that is only part of it. There are problems that arise with speech and locomotion that increase.

For now Parkinson's has allowed me to write, I hope it remains. There has been medication for several decades that keeps the body functioning but there is still no cure, although the Israelis are working on it and it seems that the definitive answer will come through stem cells.

In any case, I ask my listeners to forgive and excuse any excess on my part. A hug.