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The Cuban writer who defied Castro

The life and death of Cuban writer and dissident Reinaldo Arenas, plus the daughter of sculptor Henry Moore, the DEA and Pablo Escobar and the ill-fated voyage of The Endurance.

On 7 December 1990 the dissident Cuban novelist and poet Reinaldo Arenas killed himself in New York after years of suffering from AIDS. Before fleeing Cuba, Arenas had been jailed for his homosexuality, sent to re-education camps and prevented from writing. We hear from his friend and fellow writer, Jaime Manrique. Plus the memories of the daughter of the renowned British sculptor, Henry Moore; how the DEA helped track down Pablo Escobar; the ill-fated voyage of Shackleton's ship The Endurance; and inside one of the most notorious prison camps in post Soviet Central Asia.

(Photo: Reinaldo Arenas. Credit: Sophie Bassouls/Sygma/Sygma/Getty Images)

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Tue 10 Dec 2019 00:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 7 Dec 2019 15:06GMT
  • Sat 7 Dec 2019 19:06GMT
  • Sat 7 Dec 2019 20:06GMT
  • Sun 8 Dec 2019 15:06GMT
  • Tue 10 Dec 2019 00:06GMT

Podcast