A native to Cuba, Otto Macias is a former combat infantryman who fought in the Vietnam war of the 1960s for the Americans, before he made his move to the US, the homeland he chose to inhabit. In 1981 though, without giving any notice, the Department of VA cut off all of his benefits.
Otto Macias left languishing:
Otto Macias was initially a citizen of the United States but he went back to Cuba and according to the VA, this meant a violation of the embargo that the US currently has with Cuba.
A New Mexico lawyer Jason Williams, this past week appealed to a federal appeals court to make the restoration of Otto’s benefits and to compensate him properly for the services he made for the prosperity of the nation.
Jason said that by this unannounced termination of benefits, the VA has violated Otto’s most fundamental rights. He further urged that the VA is liable to provide the person proper news before going ahead and depriving him of the money that he is dependent upon. Jason visited Macias in 2015 by traveling to Havana and discussed the situation in detail there. According to him, Macias was born in 1940 in Camaguey and moved to the US in 1961 when he enlisted in the army.
News like these are always very hard to digest because expecting a 75 year old man to survive all by himself without any due compensation is really cruel and if the VA wanted to indeed deprive him of the money that they owe him, they should have at-least made sure that he knew before they did so. Here’s hoping that something becomes of the appeal made by Jason and that Otto gets to receive his due share of benefits from the VA once again as he rightfully deserves.
