Agustin Tamargo | Anti-Castro journalist, 82
Agustin Tamargo, 82, an outspoken Cuban journalist who strongly criticized the regime of Fidel Castro in print and on the radio in Miami, where he became a leading voice of the exile community, died of cardiac arrest Wednesday in Miami Beach.
Agustin Tamargo, 82, an outspoken Cuban journalist who strongly criticized the regime of Fidel Castro in print and on the radio in Miami, where he became a leading voice of the exile community, died of cardiac arrest Wednesday in Miami Beach.
On Radio Mambi, a powerful Spanish-language station, Mr. Tamargo hosted a program that was a mix of news from Cuba tinted with his strong political opinions. He usually included a segment in which he also took calls from listeners in rapid-fire succession, encouraging opinions that echoed his own and dismissing those that differed.
Mr. Tamargo, who had surgery for cancer of the larynx, continued to broadcast live until three weeks ago.
His hatred of the Castro regime was seemingly inexhaustible, and his programs often turned into prolonged rants against the communist government in Cuba, making him enormously popular in parts of Miami.
He opposed any softening of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and after the war began in Iraq he often encouraged the United States to consider invading Cuba to rid the island of its dictator, an opinion he also expressed in newspaper columns. He ended each of those columns with this refrain: "Cuba first, Cuba later, and Cuba always."
Mr. Tamargo was born in Puerto Padre, on the eastern end of Cuba. In 1944, he moved to Havana and wrote for magazines and newspapers, criticizing dictator Fulgencio Batista so fiercely that he was forced into exile.
He returned to Cuba after the triumph of Castro in 1959 but became disillusioned as Castro turned toward communism. Mr. Tamargo left Cuba again in 1960, and in a parting shot wrote to Castro in his column: "You don't want journalists. You want record players."
He worked at newspapers in Venezuela and Argentina before moving to New York City, where he became the editor of the Spanish-language newspapers El Tiempo and El Diario/La Prensa. By 1980, he had moved to Miami.
Mr. Tamargo is survived by his wife of 64 years, Rosalba Napoles, and seven children. - N.Y. Times News Service