Benes, Bernardo, 1934-

Bernardo Benes was born on December 27, 1934 in Matanzas, Cuba. He received degrees in law and public accounting from the University of Havana in 1956 and joined the law firm of Ramon Zaydin. Benes worked for the Ministry of Finance in the early months of the Castro regime but government harassment forced him to leave Cuba in November 1960. He was employed by the Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association in Miami, Florida and rose quickly to vice-president. He became a U.S. citizen in 1969. A high-profile civic activist, he opened Continental National Bank, the first Cuban-American bank in Miami, in 1974. He was Chairman of the Jimmy Carter presidential campaign's Hispanic Committee in Florida in 1976. Benes served as an intermediary between the U.S. and Cuban governments during the Carter and Reagan administrations, and helped secure the release of thousands of Cuban political prisoners, for immigration to the United States.