Author of the blog ‘Mermelada’, he was an expert in republican history and a contributor to the independent press.
14ymedio, Havana, 11 April 2025 — Born in 1938, a Sagittarius, a former Piarist student, a former military officer of the regime, and a writer passionate about Cuba, literature, sports, and cinema: this was the calling card of Fernando Dámaso, once one of the most active authors on Cuban topics on the Internet. He died at 8:00 a.m. this Friday at the age of 87, in Havana.
His wife, Rebeca Monzó, confirmed the death of the man who was also, for a time, a contributor to 14ymedio and Diario de Cuba. Familiar with the inner workings of the Army, he rose to become a colonel in the Armed Forces under the command of General Ulises Rosales del Toro, one of the men who held the reins of Cuban troops in Africa.
After the execution of Arnaldo Ochoa and three others implicated in the notorious Case 1 in 1989, Dámaso resigned from the Communist Party and the Armed Forces. His protest cost him dearly. He was not only sanctioned, but also subjected to a ban on the pretext—applied to all high-ranking Cuban military personnel who deserted —that he might reveal secrets to the “enemy.”
By then, Dámaso had accumulated several military “missions” in Africa on his service record, a period in his life about which he preferred to remain discreet.
Dámaso had accumulated several military “missions” in Africa on his service record, a period in his life about which he preferred to remain discreet.
In Mermelada, his blog – active until 2020 – Dámaso addressed a myriad of topics, from the politics of both sides to the history of the island. From that space, he repeatedly criticized the regime, always with calm arguments and expressed ironically, especially in the form of comments on the official press. [Selections from Mermelada in English are here.]
He also published Mapa perdido de La Habana (Lost Map of Havana) with Hypermedia Ediciones, which compiled some of his historical and cultural texts, exploring the character of the capital through the origins of its emblematic streets and corners. He was an expert on culture and politics during the Republic, chronicling its “buried history.”
In several interviews, Dámaso pinned Cuba’s future on the tension between dogmatists and pragmatists, two extremes of the nomenklatura who, he believed, would enter into a definitive confrontation when the so-called historic generation, beginning with Fidel Castro, was dead and buried. He lived to see that Castro’s death did little to shake the foundations of a dictatorship that made “continuity” its watchword.
When questioned by media outlets around the world, he invited caution and urged against underestimating the military-based structure on which the leader had built his dominance over Cubans. Change would not be “imminent, not even close,” he predicted back in 2017, at least as long as Raúl Castro continued to dictate the country’s course from his retirement.
Regarding the possibility of change, he did venture at least that it would be carried out by “someone who will emerge from the process, someone no one knows today.”
Translator’s note: This is the first personal note I have added to a post on this project. From the beginning of my translating, Fernando and Rebeca’s voices were among my most treasured; cogent, gentle and calm. How I wish I had met them. Perhaps in some yet unimagined future I can still meet Rebeca. Safe travels my friends. May my work here continue to honor you and your lives.
