Rolando Masferrer

Rolando Masferrer Rojas (1918-1975), better known simply as Rolando Masferrer, was a Cuban guerilla leader, congressman, newspaper publisher and politically involved person.

Masferrer was a member of the Joven Cuba organization as a teenager. He later formed part of the Abraham Lincoln brigade in the Spanish civil war and he also was a member of Cuba's Communist party. Masferrer was a staunch supporter of Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista. He was the leading founder of Los Tigres de Manferrer, a guerrilla organization set up to protect Batista from other para-military groups.

Regardless that Masferrer was a Communist supporter, after Fidel Castro took over Cuba's presidency on January 9, 1959, Masferrer had to abandon the island, because Castro acussed him of stealing 10 million dollars. He left in a boat, landing in Miami.

In the United States, he befriended such mafia bosses as Santo Trafficante and Jimmy Hoffa. He established the 30th of November organization, with the purpose of killing Castro. Masferrer was also known for mistreating Cubans residing in Florida, extorting money from them for what he said was "to help Cuba".

From Miami, according to some reports, he and CIA member Richard Bissell planned an assassination attempt on Castro. But, seventy seven days after Castro had assumed power, the would be assassins that had been sent to Cuba, were arrested by Cuban police, and the attempt failed.

Shortly after, Masferrer organized another group to try a second attempt on Cuba's leader. Among them was the infamous Armentino Feria Perez.

On a December, 1960, edition of the Miami Herald, it was published that Masferrer was leading a small group of fifty three persons that, according to the article, were polishing their killing skills at a ranch owned by multi-millionaire Howard Hughes. Masferrer might have intended to hire a few of them for his organization.

In 1961, Masferrer met with President John F. Kennedy, presumably to talk about Castro and the situation in Cuba. But Kennedy disliked Mansferrer's radical and fanatical personality, and the two never established any publicly known conversation after that.

Many in Cuba see Masferrer as a terrorist.

Masferrer was killed by a car bomb in 1975.