Cuban Revolutionary Jorge González Pérez Passes Away

There is no doubt that the Cuban Revolution is replete with stories of heroism and personal sacrifice. From the attack on the Moncada Barracks, to the (failed) attempt to take over the Presidential Palace in 1957, to the countless courageous acts of Che Guevara’s pelotón suicida, Fidel’s guerrilla troops, or Camilo Cienfuegos’ frontline fighting. Even after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista, such heroic acts continued, whether in the historic victory of Playa Girón over the US-sponsored invasion or in the internationalist missions in Africa and Asia. Cuba’s history and present is filled with such heroic deeds because the essence of its process is solidarity and sacrifice.

Though, not every heroic act is embodied in acts of war. The Cuban Revolution is one of those processes that demonstrate that the highest heroism is built through sustained actions throughout a lifetime, and that implies for a revolutionary political process not only activity on the battlefront but also in the rear of everyday life. This was already understood by Bertolt Brecht when he said “There are men who fight one day and are very good. Others fight for a year and are better. Some fight for many years and are very good. But there are those who fight all their lives, those are the indispensable ones.”

Today Cuba remembers Jorge González Pérez, aka “Popi”, as one of those indispensable revolutionaries. González was born on April 23, 1952, in Jovellanos, a municipality in the province of Matanzas. Due to the great need for qualified doctors committed to the revolutionary process, Popi began studying medicine at the University of Havana in 1975. In this same sense, attending to the pressing needs of that time, he entered the specialization of Legal Medicine while serving as a university professor. At the end of the 1970s, he traveled to Berlin to continue his studies at the Institute of Legal Medicine.

After completing his professional training, González held important public positions, such as head of the Department of Forensic Toxicology and director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Havana. During all these years, he established himself as a first-class academic through his scientific publications and his activity as a trainer of Cuban doctors. This led him to become rector of the University of Medical Sciences of Havana.

The search for a myth

However, what brought Popi into popular mass consciousness, was his tireless search for the whereabouts of a disappeared person, or perhaps we should say, the great disappeared person of the Cuban Revolution. In 1995, the family of Ernesto “Che” Guevara appointed him as the person in charge of searching for the remains of the mythical guerrilla fighter, who was assassinated in Bolivia in 1967. But the mission not only involved finding the remains of “Che”, but also those of the other Cuban internationalist fighters who fell on Bolivian soil.

The search for Guevara’s remains was arduous; many times it seemed that there would be no way to find his mortal remains. However, “Popi’s” tenacity was exemplary. González and the group of scientists he led, took more than five years to find the remains of “Che”, who was also a doctor and a figure of inspiration for González himself. After verifying the identity of the now mythical Cuban heroes, González and his team returned to Cuba with the bodies that Cuba had demanded for more than 30 years.

His persistence allowed him to be recognized as a defender of the ideals of the Cuban revolution. Perhaps that is why he was elected deputy of the National Assembly of Cuba between 1998 and 2018, where he held positions as President of the Health and Sports Commission of the Legislative and President of the Parliamentary Friendship Group with Bolivia.

Messages of condolence

The President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote in his X account: “It is very painful, the loss of a brilliant, passionate and loyal scientist until his last breath, like Jorge González, Popi for all Cubans, Hero of Work and admired Health executive, to whom we owe, among many contributions, the finding of Che’s remains.”

The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) also expressed their sorrow for the death of the famed forensic doctor: “The Homeland has lost a great man. It hurts to hear news like this. Jorge González, ‘Popi’ for all Cubans, is a Hero of Work and an admired scientist.”

For its part, the Cuban Ministry of Health wrote on its social networks, “To Dr. Jorge González Pérez, a man committed to Cuban revolutionary medicine, whose immense work will endure in present and future generations of health professionals, today goes our most sincere and heartfelt tribute. ¡Hasta siempre, profe Popi!”