Orlando Borrego
Encyclopedia
Orlando Borrego is a Cuba
n economist
, writer and former guerrilla who worked with Che Guevara
during the Cuban Revolution
.
of Eduardo Chibas
. His father was a taxi driver and his mother a teacher. In 1952, Fulgencio Batista
led a coup against Cuba's democratic government, weeks before an election which the Partido Ortodoxo were touted to win. While he was still at secondary school, Borrego became one of the earliest supporters of the organisation which was to become the 26th of July Movement
, before Fidel Castro
led the attack on the Moncada Barracks
which was to give the organisation its name.
In October 1958, Borrego joined a column of the 26th of July Movement's rebel army in the Escambray Mountains
, which was under the command of Che Guevara. By the revolution's triumph in January 1959, Borrego had achieved the rank of First Lieutenant
.
Immediately after the revolutionary army's entrance in Havana
Borrego worked alongside Guevara at La Cabaña
fortress. He was appointed Head of the Military Economic Board and served as a prosecutor at the trials of several members of the Batista regime. In October 1959, Che was named head of the Department of Industrialisation, which was set up within the National Institute of Agrarian Reform
(INRA). INRA had been set up to institute the Agrarian Reform Law
of May 1959. Che decided to bring Borrego to INRA as his deputy, Aleida March
as his personal assistant and José Manresa as his secretary. However, the following month, Che became President of the National Bank, and Borrego was left to run the Department of Industrialisation. The two continued to meet regularly to discuss all progress and measures taken. In February 1961 Che was appointed head of the newly expanded Ministry of Industries (MININD), with Orlando Borrego as his Vice-Minister. Borrego played an important role in the development of the Budgetary Finance System.
In 1964, the massive Consolidated Enterprise of Sugar was split off from MININD to form a separate Ministry of Sugar. Borrego was appointed head of the new Ministry. Borrego continued to be an adherent of the Budgetary Finance System, and worked closely with Che to improve it. When Che left for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
in 1965, he left Borrego with his personal copy of Das Kapital
. Borrego met with Che for the last time in 1966, during secret preparations for Che's ill-fated expedition in Bolivia
. Borrego left as Minister of Sugar in 1968. Although equipped with little evidence, Cuban-American writer Servando Gonzalez, a well-known critic of Cuba, has claimed that Borrego was fired by Fidel Castro in a fit of rage for expressing his doubts over the possibility that the 1970 sugar quota would be attained. Both Castro and Borrego have dismissed Gonzalez's assertion as complete myth. Borrego finally achieved his doctorate in economics from the University of Havana
in 1973.
From 1973 until 1980, Borrego served as an advisor to the Council of Ministers of Cuba
, while at the same time achieving another doctorate from the Central Economic Mathematical Institute in the Soviet Union
. In 1997, alongside Che's son Ernesto, Borrego visited Lebanon
, where he met with President Elias Hrawi
, toured areas near the border with Israel
and expressed support for the Lebanese people's struggle against Israeli occupation.
Currently Borrego serves as an advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Transport. He has visited Venezuela
on several occasions, where his book "Che - El Camino del Fuego" was praised by Hugo Chavez
as helping him to discover Che as a thinker and an economist. He also visited Great Britain
in 2008 on a tour organised by Rock Around the Blockade
where he spoke alongside philosopher Jesús Garcia and student leader Yoselin Rufin.
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, writer and former guerrilla who worked with Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
during the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
.
Biography
Orlando Borrego was born in 1936 into a peasant family who later identified with the Partido OrtodoxoPartido Ortodoxo
The ' was a Cuban political party, otherwise known as the . It was founded in 1947 by Eduardo Chibás in response to perceived government corruption and lack of reform...
of Eduardo Chibas
Eduardo Chibás
Eduardo René Chibás Ribas was a Cuban politician who used radio to broadcast his political views to the public. He primarily denounced corruption and gangsterism rampant during the governments of Ramón Grau and Carlos Prío which preceded the Batista era...
. His father was a taxi driver and his mother a teacher. In 1952, Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
led a coup against Cuba's democratic government, weeks before an election which the Partido Ortodoxo were touted to win. While he was still at secondary school, Borrego became one of the earliest supporters of the organisation which was to become the 26th of July Movement
26th of July Movement
The 26th of July Movement was the revolutionary organization planned and led by Fidel Castro that in 1959 overthrew the Fulgencio Batista government in Cuba...
, before Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
led the attack on the Moncada Barracks
Moncada Barracks
The Moncada Barracks was a military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, named after General Guillermón Moncada, a hero of the War of Independence. On July 26, 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. This armed attack is widely accepted...
which was to give the organisation its name.
In October 1958, Borrego joined a column of the 26th of July Movement's rebel army in the Escambray Mountains
Escambray Mountains
The Escambray Mountains are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara....
, which was under the command of Che Guevara. By the revolution's triumph in January 1959, Borrego had achieved the rank of First Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
.
Immediately after the revolutionary army's entrance in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
Borrego worked alongside Guevara at La Cabaña
La Cabaña
The Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña, known as La Cabaña , is an 18th-century fortress complex, the biggest in the Americas, located on the elevated eastern side of the harbor entrance in Havana, Cuba...
fortress. He was appointed Head of the Military Economic Board and served as a prosecutor at the trials of several members of the Batista regime. In October 1959, Che was named head of the Department of Industrialisation, which was set up within the National Institute of Agrarian Reform
National Institute of Agrarian Reform
The National Institute for Agrarian Reform or INRA was an agency of the Cuban Government that was formed to institute the Agrarian Reform Law of 1959.INRA also implemented the Second Agrarian Reform Law of 1963...
(INRA). INRA had been set up to institute the Agrarian Reform Law
Agrarian Reform Laws of Cuba
The agrarian reform laws of Cuba sought to break up large landholdings and redistribute land to those peasants who worked it, to cooperatives, and the state. Laws relating to land reform were implemented in a series of laws passed between 1959 and 1963 after the Cuban Revolution...
of May 1959. Che decided to bring Borrego to INRA as his deputy, Aleida March
Aleida March
Aleida March is Ernesto "Che" Guevara's second wife, and a member of Castro's Cuban army. Her marriage with Che Guevara is reported to have happened both on 23 March 1959 and 2 June 1959. A civil ceremony was held at La Cabana Military fortress...
as his personal assistant and José Manresa as his secretary. However, the following month, Che became President of the National Bank, and Borrego was left to run the Department of Industrialisation. The two continued to meet regularly to discuss all progress and measures taken. In February 1961 Che was appointed head of the newly expanded Ministry of Industries (MININD), with Orlando Borrego as his Vice-Minister. Borrego played an important role in the development of the Budgetary Finance System.
In 1964, the massive Consolidated Enterprise of Sugar was split off from MININD to form a separate Ministry of Sugar. Borrego was appointed head of the new Ministry. Borrego continued to be an adherent of the Budgetary Finance System, and worked closely with Che to improve it. When Che left for the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
in 1965, he left Borrego with his personal copy of Das Kapital
Das Kapital
Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...
. Borrego met with Che for the last time in 1966, during secret preparations for Che's ill-fated expedition in Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
. Borrego left as Minister of Sugar in 1968. Although equipped with little evidence, Cuban-American writer Servando Gonzalez, a well-known critic of Cuba, has claimed that Borrego was fired by Fidel Castro in a fit of rage for expressing his doubts over the possibility that the 1970 sugar quota would be attained. Both Castro and Borrego have dismissed Gonzalez's assertion as complete myth. Borrego finally achieved his doctorate in economics from the University of Havana
University of Havana
The University of Havana or UH is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1728, the University of Havana is the oldest university in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas...
in 1973.
From 1973 until 1980, Borrego served as an advisor to the Council of Ministers of Cuba
Council of Ministers of Cuba
The Cabinet of Cuba is the highest ranking executive and administrative body of the Republic of Cuba, and constitutes the nation's government...
, while at the same time achieving another doctorate from the Central Economic Mathematical Institute in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. In 1997, alongside Che's son Ernesto, Borrego visited Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, where he met with President Elias Hrawi
Elias Hrawi
Elias Hrawi was a President of Lebanon, whose term of office ran from 1989 to 1998.He was a native of the Beqaa valley. He was elected on 24 November 1989, two days after the assassination of René Moawad, who had held office for just seventeen days...
, toured areas near the border with Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and expressed support for the Lebanese people's struggle against Israeli occupation.
Currently Borrego serves as an advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Transport. He has visited Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
on several occasions, where his book "Che - El Camino del Fuego" was praised by Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
as helping him to discover Che as a thinker and an economist. He also visited Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in 2008 on a tour organised by Rock Around the Blockade
Rock Around the Blockade
Rock Around the Blockade , is a Cuba solidarity organisation in Britain founded by members of the Revolutionary Communist Group in 1995. RATB sees the struggle to defend the Cuban Revolution as part of building a movement for socialism and communism in Britain...
where he spoke alongside philosopher Jesús Garcia and student leader Yoselin Rufin.
On Che Guevara
Published works
- Celebración de la bienvenida a Cuba de la brigada de refuerzo de Ernesto Che Guevara (Pathfinder 1998); ISBN 9780873488723
- Che - El Camino del Fuego (Hombre Nuevo 2001); ISBN 9789879879108
- Che, Recuerdos En Rafaga, (Ciencias Sociales 2004); ISBN 9789590606502