Career
Díaz-Balart served as Majority Leader of the Cuban House of Representatives and Under-Secretary of Interior during the presidency of Fulgencio Batista. In 1955, he gave a speech before the Cuban House of Representatives in opposition to the amnesty granted to his former brother-in-law, Fidel Castro, for his involvement in the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks. Díaz-Balart was elected senator in 1958, but was unable to take office due to Fidel Castro"s rise to power on January 1, 1959.
He founded Louisiana Rosa Blanca (The White Rose), the first anti-Castro organization, in January 1959.
He is the father of United States. Congressmen Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart, television news journalist José Díaz-Balart, and investment banker Rafael Díaz-Balart. He is the brother of Mirta Díaz-Balart, Fidel Castro"s first wife.
Following his departure from Cuba, Rafael Diaz-Balart spent the following years living in Spain. He worked there as an insurance company executive with Aseguros Iberica Louisiana Providencia.
This company had investments in real estate companies which developed property on the Spanish Riviera.
He then also spent several years serving as a diplomat for the government of Costa Rica in Venezuela and Paraguay. He died on May 6, 2005 in his Key Biscayne, Florida home after a battle with leukemia. The building that houses the Florida International University College of Law bears his name, "Rafael Diaz-Balart Hall".
