Huber Matos Benítez (26 November 1918 – 27 February 2014) was a Cuban military leader, political dissident, activist, and writer.

Following the success of the Cuban Revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, he criticized the regime's shift in favor of Marxist principles and ties to the Popular Socialist Party (PSP).

He then divided his time between Miami, Florida, and Costa Rica while continuing to protest the policies of the Cuban government.

He moved to Costa Rica for several years, maintaining contact with the M-26-7 revolutionaries stationed in the Sierra Maestra mountains and helping them with logistical and organizational support.

He developed contacts with President José Figueres of Costa Rica who supported Cuban rebel aims and helped Matos obtain weapons and supplies.

Matos led his column during the final assault on Santiago de Cuba that brought the revolutionary movement's military operations to their close.

In July 1959, Matos denounced the direction the revolution was taking by giving openly anti-communist speeches in Camagüey.

[5][a] Cuban Communists later claimed Matos was helping plan a counter-revolution organized by the American Central Intelligence Agency and other Castro opponents, an operation that became the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

[6][page needed] The same day Matos was arrested, Cuban exile Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz, a former air force chief of staff under Castro, flew from Florida and dropped leaflets into Havana that called for the removal of all Communists from the government.

In response, Castro held a rally where he called for the reintroduction of revolutionary tribunals to try Matos and Diaz for treason.

Ambassador to Cuba Philip Bonsal, Castro used Díaz Lanz's action, which he characterized as a "bombing", to create a mass reaction and suppress the issues raised by Matos's resignation.

[10] Testifying the next day, Fidel Castro delivered a seven-hour speech accusing Matos and the others of campaigning against the revolution and "indirectly" promoting the interests of the United States, large landowners, and supporters of Batista and the dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

On and off, I spent a total of sixteen years in solitary confinement, constantly being told that I was never going to get out alive, that I had been sentenced to die in prison.

[14] Matos served as secretary general for Cuba Independiente y Democrática (CID), a Miami-based organization founded in October 1980 in Venezuela.