High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rafael del Pino is a Cuban airplane pilot and political dissident. He was born in Pinar del Río on September 22, 1938. Del Pino joined Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement at the age of 17, in December 1955. He was arrested and sent to prison in early 1957. After his release he went to exile in Venezuela, where he was arrested during the uprising against dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez. In early 1958, he returned to Cuba and joined Fidel Castro's guerrillas in the mountains of Sierra Maestra. By the end of the war against Batista's dictatorship, Del Pino was a first lieutenant.