Associated Press

MIAMI -- Luis Andres Vargas Gomez, a former economist, diplomat and anti-Fidel Castro activist who spent 21 years in Cuban prisons, has died of kidney failure.
He was 87.

Vargas Gomez, the grandson of Gen. Maximo Gomez, a hero of Cuba's wars for independence, died Monday at his home in suburban Coral Gables.

``He was a great Cuban, a fighter until the end,'' said Juan Perez Franco, president of Brigade 2506, a group of veterans from the 1961 Bay of Pigs.

Vargas Gomez served as Cuba's ambassador to the United Nations shortly after Castro took power in 1959, but quit two months later because of a political falling
out with the Cuban leader. Vargas Gomez moved to Coral Gables in 1960 and was involved in the planning of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, serving as director of
a clandestine radio station.

Five days before the invasion, Vargas Gomez slipped into Cuba with his wife and dog. He was captured after he was refused asylum at Ecuador's embassy. His wife
and the Dalmatian managed to return to South Florida.

``He couldn't leave his dog and he found it difficult to hide with the dog,'' said Radio Marti director Salvador Lew, a friend of Vargas Gomez. ``But that just shows
you what kind of a humane person he was. He had the blood of his great ancestors.''

He was originally sentenced to death by firing squad, but the punishment was commuted to 30 years. Vargas Gomez ended up serving 21 years at various prisons
before his release in 1982. He was allowed to leave Cuba when civil rights activist Jesse Jackson persuaded Castro to release him and 25 other Cuban prisoners in
1984.

Once in South Florida, Vargas Gomez served as a college professor and international trade consultant for Miami's Department of Economic Development and
International Trade.

He was active in Miami's Cuban-American community, helping form Unidad Cubana, a coalition of anti-Castro organizations, in 1991. He also wrote a column for
El Nuevo Herald from 1986 to 1999.

Vargas Gomez is survived by his wife, stepdaughter, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

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