Cuban revolution

The cuban revolution refers to the inversion with Cuba of the mode of the dictator Pro-American Fulgencio Batista by Fidel Castro and the Mouvement of July 26th like to the installation of a mode pro-Soviet.

Before December 1956

It is generally allowed that the starting point of the cuban revolution is the July 26th 1953, when a hundred badly armed guerillas attacked the Caserne of Moncada. Good number of them were killed but certain like Fidel Castro and her brother Raúl Castro were captured little time afterwards. Fidel Castro makes of her lawsuit a political platform and will speak during nearly four hours to ensure her defense. It will finish by these words: “it does not matter that I would be condemned, the History will free me”. He is condemned to 15 years of prison on the Île of Youth. His/her brother is also condemned to 13 years of prison.

In 1955, because of the pressure of civil personalities, the general opposition, and the Jesuits who had taken part in the instruction of Fidel Castro, Batista decides to release all the political prisoner, including the attackers of Moncada. The Castro brothers leave in Exil to the Mexico, where all the Cubans decided find themselves to reverse the dictatorship of Batista by the cuban revolution. For this period, Castro also met Ernesto “Che” Guevara, which joined their forces. They are pulled by Alberto Bayo, a former military chief of the Spanish republicans exiled in Mexico at the end of the Spanish Civil war.

The group is formed with the guerilla under the control of Fidel Castro and returns to Cuba in November 1956, on a small yacht called Gramna. They hoped that their Eastern unloading in Cuba would coincide with the risings envisaged in the cities and a general strike coordinated by the Mouvement of July 26th. The objective was to carry out an armed offensive and to reverse the mode of Batista.

From December 1956 to semi-1958

The semione in January 1959

After 1959

Key dates of the armed struggle

December 2nd, 1956 the boat Granma, with 82 guerillas of the Movement of July 26th, among which Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and Raúl Castro, is failed with two days of delay on the beach Las Coloradas located on the Eastern coasts of Cuba. The delay prevented that the popular rising organized by Frank País, in Santiago of Cuba, achieves its goal to divert the attention of the troops of Batista to facilitate the unloading of the guerillas.

Separated, lost and continued, the guerillas endure a series of initial routs in Alegría de Pío. Only a large score of men could arrive at the Sierra Maestra, a difficult zone of access to the east of Cuba, where they could settle.

In 1957:

January 16th: the guerilla castrist carries out his first military action, attacker and taking the military detachment of Plata.
February 17th: appears in NewYork Times, an interview of Fidel Castro carried out by Herbert Matthews in the Sierra Maestra. The impact is enormous and starts to generate a great sympathy of the national and international public opinion towards the guerillas.
March 13rd: Directorio Revolucionario attacks the Presidential palace, resulting in the death of the leader Jose Antonio Echevarría.
May 28th: battle of El Uvero, first open action of the guerilla of March 26th, 1957.
July 17th: creation of the second column of the Rebellious army, called Nº 4, ordered by Ernesto Che Guevara.
July 30th: assassination of Frank País in Santiago of Cuba which causes a popular revolt and reverses the public opinion which becomes increasingly hostile with the mode of Batista.
September 5th: rising of the naval base of Cienfuegos directed by Alférez Dionisio San Román with the assistance of the militia of Partido Auténtico and the Movement of July 26th. In answer, the government operates a bloody repression which includes the bombardment of the base with North-American planes B-26. 300 of the 400 rebels find death and San Román is tortured during months.

In 1958:

February 27th: Fidel Castro decides to increase the operations of the guerilla by creating three new columns under the respective command of Juan Almeida, Raúl Castro and Camilo Cienfuegos. Almeida must act in the Eastern zone of the Sierra Maestra, and Raúl Castro to open a second face and to settle in the Sierra Crystal, in the north of Santiago.
April 9th: revolutionary general strike called by the Movement of July 26th. This one being badly planned, it is choked quickly by the government.
May 6th: the troops of Batista undertake a general offensive in the Maestra Sierra in order to eliminate the guerilla castrist. Important battles take place like those of El Jigue and Santo Domingo.
August 7th: Batista orders with its troops to withdraw Maestra Sierra, thus showing the weakness of the mode. Fidel Castro thus decides to take again the war in the remainder of Cuba. Che and Camilo Cienfuegos must go to north in order to divide the island into two parts and in order to prepare the attack of Santa Clara, city strategic and key of the way for Havana; while Fidel and Raúl Castro will remain in the east to control the area and to attack Santiago of Cuba finally.
August 31st: the columns of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos leave to walk towards the west Cuba. They spend six weeks to arrive in the mountainous area of Escambray, in the old province of Mow Villas.
September and October: once established in the center of the island, the Movement of July 26th coordinates its actions with other forces of guerilla acting in the area the such Revolutionary Directoire, the Second Face Revolutionary of Escambray and the Popular Socialist party (Communist) and organize the logistic support. Meanwhile, in the east, the rebellious forces approach the main cities.
November 3rd: presidential elections are organized, however no political training recognizes legitimacy to them.
At the end of November: the government tries an offensive against the positions of the guerilla in Escambray.
December 4th: the troops directed by Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos pass to the offensive, they attack the regiments located in the central zone of the island in order to isolate them from the governmental troops.
Towards the end of December 1958 the rout of the dictatorship of Batista appears inevitable. December 28th, the militia ordered by Che begin the decisive attack on the city from Santa Clara, key of the center of the island and last pocket of resistance before Havana. December 31st when the rebellious troops seize the armoured train that the government had sent to strengthen the city, Batista decides to flee towards Saint Domingue accompanied by the elected president, Andres Rivero Aguero, leaving the country virtually without chief and to the load of the general Eulogio Cantillo.

After a meeting between Fidel Castro and the general Eulogio Cantillo, this one tried to organize a military junta sitted on the regiment of Campo Columbia, ordered by colonel Ramón Barquín, with the support of the United States. The operation was denounced by Fidel Castro who called with the general strike and ordered with her commanders Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos to walk on Havana and to seize the key positions of the capital.

The morning of January 1st, 1959, the troops of Segundo Frente Nacional del Escambray under the orders of Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo entered with Havana. The next day, the troops of Movimiento 26 of Julio, ordered by Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevara, seize without resistance respectively the regiment Campo Columbia and the fortress San Carlos Cabaña. While penetrating in Campo Columbia, Cienfuegos withdrew its command with colonel Barquín and made captive the Casillas general. Shortly after the men of Directorio Revolucionario, with the orders of Faure Chomón, seized the Presidential palace.

At the same time, this same January 1st, Fidel Castro entered triumphantly to Santiago of Cuba, declaring it provisional capital of Cuba and proclaiming Manuel Urrutia chair Nation. The government of the United States recognized the new cuban revolutionary government immediately.

From this moment the capacity remained definitively between the hands of the revolutionary forces. Historically, on January 1st, 1959 is regarded as the date of the triumph of the revolution.

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