Editing Manuel Piñeiro

{{more citations needed|date=February 2013}}{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Manuel Piñeiro
| office              = Deputy [[Ministry of the Interior (Cuba)|Minister of the Interior of Cuba]] (1964-1968)
| party               = [[Communist Party of Cuba]]
| birth_name          = Manuel Piñeiro Losada
| birth_date          = 14 March 1933
| birth_place         = [[Matanzas]], [[Cuba]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1998|3|11|1933|3|14}}
| death_place         = [[Havana]], Cuba
| resting_place       = [[Colon Cemetery, Havana]]
| spouse              = [[Lorna Burdsall]] (1955-1975)<ref name="burdsall1">{{cite web |last1=Gámez Torres |first1=Nora |title=Newly found letters offer glimpse into life of US dancer married to Cuban spy chief |url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article136735808.html |website=Miami Herald |access-date=22 April 2022}}</ref><br>[[Marta Harnecker]] (1975-1998)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Timossi |first1=Jorge |title=Los cuentos de Barbarroja : comandante Manuel Piñeiro Losada |date=1999 |publisher=Ediciones Colihue |location=Buenos Aires |isbn=9789505816682 |pages=26–30 |edition=1a}}</ref>
| children            = 2
| alma_mater          = [[Columbia University]]
| nickname            = Commander Barbarroja
| allegiance          = [[26th of July Movement]]<br>[[Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces]]
| branch              = 
| serviceyears        = 1955-1998
| rank                = Commander
}}

'''Manuel Piñeiro Losada''' (14 March 1933 - 11 March 1998), also known as '''Commander Barbarroja''' (''es: "red beard"'')<ref>{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Jon Lee |title=Che Guevara : A revolutionary life |date=1997 |publisher=Grove/Atlantic |location=New York |isbn=978-0802135582 |edition=First}}</ref> was a Cuban political and military figure, a leader of the [[Cuban Revolution]], and, between 1961 and 1964, the first head of the [[Dirección de Inteligencia|Dirección General de Inteligencia]] of Cuba. Under Piñeiro, the DGI supported armed struggles in [[Latin America]], helping radical leftist [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] groups in the region. Between 1964 and 1968, Piñeiro acted as the Deputy Minister of the Interior of Cuba, during this time he was in charge of the state security apparatus. A [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] reorganization of the DGI forced Piñeiro out of his position, and he was placed in charge of the DGI's Latin American affairs division.

==Biography==
Manuel Piñeiro Losada was born on 14 March 1933 in [[Matanzas]], [[Cuba]]. His family, who had immigrated to Cuba from the Spanish region of [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], was relatively prosperous—his father was a [[Bacardi]] executive.<ref name="burdsall2">{{cite web |last1=Tsiuolcas |first1=Anastasia |title=Stranger Than Fiction: Cuba, Spies, Bombs And Dance |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/03/18/469634824/dance-dance-revolution-when-an-american-fell-in-love-with-castros-spy-chief |website=NPR.org |publisher=NPR |access-date=22 April 2022 |language=en}}</ref> After participating in the student protests against the 10 March 1952 ''coup d'état'' which brought dictator [[Fulgencio Batista]] to power, Piñeiro's family sent him to study business management at [[Columbia University]] in [[New York City|New York]]. There, he met his first wife, [[Lorna Burdsall]], whom he married in 1955.<ref name="burdsall2" /> While studying in the United States, Piñeiro began to oppose the social, racial, and political discrimination he saw there and felt the need to return to Cuba. He returned in 1955 and became a founder of the [[26th of July Movement]].

Soon after returning to Cuba, Piñiero was arrested by Batista's security agencies because of his underground political activities. After his release, he continued his clandestine activities in Havana. He discovered that he was under police surveillance, and decided that it was better to leave for the Eastern [[Sierra Maestra]] mountain range and join the [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]]s headed by Fidel Castro. After the Cuban Revolution, Piñiero was appointed Deputy Minister of the Interior and the head of the ''Technical Viceministerio'', the body that would be later responsible for gathering intelligence and developing strategies to expand [[communism]] in [[Latin America]]. In 1997, Piñeiro announced his retirement, resigning from all active government positions. He began to write and edit books about his experience in the Cuban Revolution.

Piñeiro died in a car accident on March 11, 1998. He was on his way home after receiving a tribute commemorating the creation of the Eastern Front.

==Role in the Cuban Revolution==
In March 1958, he was recognized for his  merits and was personally chosen by [[Fidel Castro]] to be the officer tasked with integrating the recently created Eastern Front II "Frank País", under the command of Fidel's younger brother, [[Raúl Castro|Raúl]].

During that time, he held several meetings with members of the Batistas' Cuban Army.
Subsequently, he was appointed Chief of Personnel and Inspection, a position that included responsibilities for the Intelligence Service and the recently created ''Policía Rebelde'', which was a predecessor of Castro's Revolutionary Police.

During the battle for [[Santiago de Cuba]], he was promoted to ''Commander of the Cuban Revolution''. After the triumph of the Revolution, he was appointed "Chief of the Military Plaza" in Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in the country.

It is at this time that his face is caught by photographic cameras for the first time, showing his red beard and revealing the reason of the nickname given to him by the rebel troops.

He was then transferred to [[Havana]], where he served various functions in the creation of the intelligence agencies and security of the new Castro regime. During the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], Piñeiro was deputy to [[Ramiro Valdés Menéndez]], head of G-2 (Seguridad del Estado, or state security).<ref name='Szulc (1986)'>Szulc (1986)</ref>

On June 6, 1961, he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Interior and head of the so-called Technical Viceministerio, the body that would be later responsible for gathering intelligence and developing strategies to expand [[communism]] in [[Latin America]].

In 1965, he was appointed to the Central Committee of the [[Cuban Communist Party]], a post he held until 1997.

That same year in [[Havana]], he received the visit of [[Markus Wolf]], director of the [[East German]] secret police (the [[Stasi]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wolf |first1=Markus |title=Man Without a Face: The Autobiography of Communism's Greatest Spymaster |date=1997 |publisher=PublicAffairs |location=New York |isbn=1-891620-12-6 |edition=First}}</ref> Wolf, whose real identity would only be known to the Western intelligence services in 1979, had gone to [[Cuba]] to advise the [[Socialism|socialist]] government how to set up the new [[Dirección General de Inteligencia|General Intelligence Directorate]] on the island.

In early 1975, Piñeiro was head of the "Américas Department" of the Cuban Communist Party's Central Committee.

In 1997, he resigned all his active government positions and started to write and edit books dedicated to a retrospective analysis of the [[Cuban Revolution]].

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
*Szulc, Tad. 1986. Fidel - A Critical Portrait. Hutchinson. {{ISBN|0-09-172602-6}}
*Koura, Jan; Waters, Robert Anthony (2019-12-01). "'Africanos' versus 'Africanitos' the Soviet-Czechoslovak Competition to Protect the Cuban Revolution". ''The International History Review''. '''0''' (0): 1–18. [[Doi (identifier)|doi]]:10.1080/07075332.2019.1692892. [[ISSN (identifier)|ISSN]] {{not a typo|0707-5332}}.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pineiro, Manuel}}
[[Category:1934 births]]
[[Category:1998 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Matanzas]]
[[Category:Cuban people of Galician descent]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Cuba politicians]]
[[Category:Cuban spies]]
[[Category:Road incident deaths in Cuba]]
[[Category:Cuban revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:Spymasters]]