Armando Valladares

Armando Valladares

"Mr. Valladares is Cuba’s most famous prisoner of conscience. As a punishment for his honesty and courage, Mr. Valladares spent 22 years in Cuba's prisons, where he was subjected to the most inhumane conditions, including daily torture, forced labor, and solitary confinement. It was only after much international pressure and a personal plea from French president François Mitterrand to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro that Mr. Valladares was released in 1982. He subsequently published his memoirs in the international best-seller Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro’s Gulag, and campaigned ceaselessly to expose the plight of Castro's political prisoners. After his release, Mr. Valladares was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, where his focus on Cuba led to the exposure of Castro's horrific prison system. Ambassador Valladares also co-founded Resistance International and is currently chairman of the Valladares Project, an international children’s rights advocacy nonprofit. President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Citizen’s Medal."

A member of the international council of Human Rights Foundation.


 * International Advisory Council, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation