Cuban dissident dies at 77

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HAVANA, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo, a Cuban revolutionary commander and anti-Fidel Castro activist, has died in Havana of an aneurysm, officials said. He was 77.

Gutierrez-Menoyo died Friday, The Miami Herald reported.

Born in Madrid, Spain, Gutierrez-Menoyo was a commanding officer during the Cuban Revolution and later fought against Castro's communist regime.

In 1961, he fled to Miami, where he became a military leader for the newly formed anti-Castro group Alpha 66. He returned to Cuba in 1964 with three men in hopes of launching an armed uprising against Castro, but was captured and spent 22 years in Cuban prisons.

When he was released, Gutierrez-Menoyo was sent to Spain before he moved back to Miami in 1987.

Gutierrez-Menoyo moved back to Cuba permanently in 2003.