Cuban Revolution

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Cuban Revolution (part of Cold War)
Date July 26, 1953, to January 1, 1959 Location Cuba Result Overthrow of Batista government
Belligerents
26th of July Movement	Cuba
Commanders
Fidel Castro Che Guevara Raul Castro	Fulgencio Batista

The Cuban Revolution refers to the revolution that led to the overthrow of General Fulgencio Batista's regime on January 1, 1959 by the 26th of July Movement and other revolutionary elements within the country. The Cuban Revolution also refers to the ongoing implementation of social and economic programs by the new government since the overthrow of the Batista government, including the implementation of Marxist policies.

Pre-December 1956

Main article: Moncada Barracks

The starting point of the Cuban Revolution is generally accepted to be July 26, 1953, the date on which a group of about one hundred poorly armed guerrillas attacked the Moncada Barracks.[1] Many of them were killed in the battles after the attack or tortured, as was Abel Santamaria. The survivors, among them Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro Ruz, were captured shortly afterwards. In a highly political trial, Fidel Castro spoke for nearly four hours in his defense, ending with the words; "Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me." Fidel Castro was sentenced 15 years in the presidio modelo prison, located on Isla de Pinos; Raúl was sentenced to 13 years.

In 1955, due to pressure from civil leaders, the general opposition, and the Jesuits who had helped educate Fidel Castro, and perhaps because he had known the Castro brothers in their youth, Batista freed all political prisoners, including the Moncada attackers. The Castro brothers went into exile in Mexico, where they gathered more exiled Cubans to fight in the Cuban revolution for the overthrow of Batista. During that period, Castro also met Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who joined their forces. They were trained by Alberto Bayo, a former military leader of the failed "loyalists" in the Spanish Civil War.

The group trained in Mexico under the leadership of Fidel Castro and returned to Cuba in November 1956, on a small yacht named Granma. They hoped their landing in Eastern Cuba would coincide with planned uprisings in the cities and a general strike, coordinated by the llano wing of the 26th of July Movement. It was their intention to launch an armed offensive and swiftly topple the Batista government.

December 1956 to Mid-1958

The Granma arrived in Cuba on 2 December 1956. It was delayed in route to Cuba, arriving late and at a location further east than was planned. This dashed any hopes for a coordinated attack with the llano wing of the movement. After arriving and exiting the ship, the band of rebels began to make their way into the Sierra Maestra mountains, a range in Southwestern Cuba. Shortly after their trek began, they were attacked by men from the army. Most of the Granma participants were killed in this attack, but a small number, between ten and two dozen, escaped. The survivors were separated from one another, and alone or in small groups, wandered through the mountains, looking for other survivors. Eventually, this small group of persons, which included Fidel Castro, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, Juan José Pàjaro, Camilo Cienfuegos, and Raúl Castro, would find one another with the help of peasant sympathizers and would form the core leadership of the guerrilla army. Celia Sanchez and Haydee Santamaria, sister of Abel Santamaria, were two women revolutionaries that assisted Fidel Castro in the mountains.

There was another group of revolutionaries, who carried out the most dramatic act of the Revolution since the Moncada Barracks attack of 1953. This second group of revolutionaries were members of the decidedly anticommunist, Student Revolutionary Directorate (RD; Directorio Revolucionario), who in plain daylight and in the middle of Havana traffic stormed the Presidential Palace in an attempt to decapitate the government from the top-- i.e., to assassinate President Fulgencio Batista-- on March 13, 1957.

But it was the RD that was virtually decapitated after this suicidal attack. Jose Antonio Echeverria, student leader of the group, died of gun-shot wounds fighting Batista's forces after seizing a Havana radio station to broadcast the anticipated news of the success of the operation and the death of the dictator. Only a handful of the assailants (and RD leaders) survived, among them Dr. Humberto Castello, who became Inspector General in the Escambray, Comandante Rolando Cubela and Comandante Faure Chomon, the last two, dual leaders of the pro-freedom, 13 of March Movement, in the Escambray Mountains in Las Villas Province. ^[1]

From 1956 through the middle of 1958, Castro, with the aid of Frank País, Ramos Latour, Huber Matos, and many others, staged successful attacks on small Batista garrisons in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Batista forces tried bloody repression to retain control and the cities in Cuba remained under Batista's control until the end. Che Guevara and Raúl Castro helped consolidate political control in the mountains through executions of suspected Batista Loyalists and potential rivals to Castro. The irregular poorly armed escopeteros harassed the Batista forces through the foot hills and the plains of Oriente Province; in addition these much maligned forces provided Castro's main forces with moderate military support, intelligence, and protected supply lines. Thus Castro achieved military control of these mountains.

In addition to the physical attacks endured by Batista, further insult came from a pirate radio station called Rebel Radio (Radio Rebelde), created in February 1958. It was on these airwaves that Castro and his forces broadcast their message to everyone, from within enemy territory. The radio broadcasts were made possible by Carlos Franqui, a previous acquaintance of Castro and Cuban exile now living in Puerto Rico.

During this time, Castro's forces were quite small, at times less than 200 men, while the Cuban army and police force numbered between 30,000 and 40,000 in strength. Yet nearly every time the army fought against the revolutionaries, they were the ones who retreated from the fight. The Cuban military was remarkably ineffective. A growing problem for the Batista forces was an arms embargo imposed on the Cuban government by the United States government on March 14, 1958. The Cuban air force rapidly lost its power as planes could not be repaired without spare parts from the United States.

In the question of support and supply for the insurgency, too, the official figures available from both the U. S. Government and the Cuban government are somewhat suspect. In fact, the 26th of July columns were constantly supplied with ammunition, ordnance, and certain specialized communications equipment, by air and sea, from various locations in Florida and Louisiana. The bulk of the ordinary military stores were drawn from the armories of the Alabama National Guard, which served as the 'augmentation' for the para-military operations conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency in Latin America. Towards the final stages of the conflict, limited numbers of aircraft and armored vehicles were supplied to the insurgents directly from the U.S. Naval Station at Guantánamo Bay, so that the handful of early, cast-hull M4A3 Shermans (equipped with the low-velocity 75mm gun) of the Cuban Army found themselves facing 'Easy Eights' (M4 Shermans with upgraded armor, high-velocity 76mm guns, and HVSS) 'issued' from U.S. Army National Guard and Reserve stores.^{[citation needed]}

Batista forces finally responded with an attack on the mountains called Operation Verano (the rebels called it "la Ofensiva"). Some 12,000 soldiers (more than half new, untrained recruits) attacked into the mountains. In a series of small-scale fights, the Cuban army was defeated by Castro's determined soldiers. In one battle (the Battle of La Plata) which lasted from July 11 till July 21, Castro's forces defeated an entire battalion, capturing 240 men, while losing just 3 of their own. The tide nearly turned on July 29 when Castro's small army (some 300 men) was almost destroyed at the Battle of Las Mercedes. With his forces pinned down by superior numbers, Castro asked for, and was granted, a temporary cease-fire (August 1st). Over the next seven days, while fruitless negotiations took place, Castro's forces gradually escaped from the trap. By August 8th, Castro's entire army had escaped back into the mountains. Operation Verano had been a failure for the Batista government.

Mid-1958 to January 1959

Map Showing Key Locations in the Sierra Maestra during the Cuban Revolution, 1958.

On August 21, 1958, after the defeat of the Batista "ofensiva", Castro's forces began their offensive. There were four fronts in the "Oriente" province (now divided into Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Guantánamo and Holguín) directed by Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida Bosque. Descending from the mountains, with weapons captured during the ofensiva and smuggled in by plane, Castro's forces won a series of victories. The major Castro victory at Guisa, and the succeeding capture of several towns (Maffo, Contramaestre, Central Oriente, etc.) consolidated victory on the Cauto plains.

Meanwhile, three columns under the command of Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and Jaime Vega proceeded westward toward the provincial capital of Santa Clara. Jaime Vega's column was ambushed and destroyed. The surviving two columns reached the central provinces, where they joined efforts with several other resistance groups not under the command of Castro. According to Faria, when Che Guevara's column passed through his native province of Las Villas, specifically through the Escambray Mountains — i.e., where the anticommunist Revolutionary Directorate forces (13 of March Movement) had been fighting Batista's army for many months — friction developed between the two groups of rebels. Che's 26th of July Movement troops were found to be heavily infiltrated by communists, such as the polemicist Armando Acosta and the more dangerous Comandante Felix Torres. But the combined rebel army continued the offensive and Cienfuegos won a key victory in the Battle of Yaguajay on December 30, 1958 (earning him the nickname "The Hero of Yaguajay").

Map of Cuba showing the location of the arrival of the rebels on the Granma yacht in late 1956 and the rebels' stronghold in the Sierra Maestra. The map also shows Guevara and Cienfuegos's route towards Havana via Las Villas Province in December 1958.

The next day (the 31st), in a scene of great confusion, the city of Santa Clara was captured by the combined forces of Che Guevara, Cienfuegos, Revolutionary Directorate(RD) rebels led by Comandantes Rolando Cubela, Juan ("El Mejicano") Abrahantes , and William Alexander Morgan. News of these defeats caused Batista to panic. He fled Cuba for the Dominican Republic just hours later on January 1, 1959. Comandante William Alexander Morgan, for his part and leading RD rebel forces, continued fighting and captured the city of Cienfuegos on January 1 and 2, during, and in, the wake of Batista's departure. ^[2] Castro learned of Batista's flight in the morning and immediately started negotiations to take over Santiago de Cuba. On January 2nd, the military commander in the city, Colonel Rubido, ordered his soldiers not to fight and Castro's forces took over the city. The forces of Guevara and Cienfuegos entered Havana at about the same time. They had met no opposition on their journey from Santa Clara to Cuba's capital. Castro himself arrived in Havana on January 8th after a long victory march, his choice of President, Manuel Urrutia Lleó taking up office on the 3rd.^[3]

Post-1959: After the Revolution

Hundreds of suspected Batista-era agents, policemen and soldiers were put on public trial for human rights abuses and war crimes, including murder and torture. Most of those convicted in revolutionary tribunals of political crimes were summarily executed by firing squad, and the rest received long prison sentences. One of the most notorious examples of revolutionary justice was the executions of over 70 captured Batista regime soldiers, directed by Raúl Castro after capturing Santiago. For his part in Havana, Che Guevara was appointed supreme prosecutor in La Cabaña Fortress. This was part of a large-scale attempt by Fidel Castro to cleanse the security forces of Batista loyalists and potential opponents of the new revolutionary regime that could launch a counter-revolution. Others were fortunate to be dismissed from the army and police without prosecution, and some high-ranking officials in the ancien régime were exiled as military attachés.^[4]

In 1961 after the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the new Cuban government also nationalized all property held by religious organizations including the Roman Catholic Church. Hundreds of members of the clergy, including a bishop, were permanently expelled from the nation, with the new Cuban government being officially atheist. Faria describes how the education of children changed as Cuba became officially an atheist state: private schools were banned and the progressively Socialist state assumed greater responsibility for children.^[5]

According to geographer and Cuban Comandante Antonio Núñez Jiménez, 75% of Cuba's best arable land was owned by foreign individuals or foreign (mostly U.S.) companies. One of the first policies by the newly formed Cuban government was eliminating illiteracy and implementing land reforms. Land reform efforts helped to raise living standards by subdividing larger holdings into cooperatives. Comandante Sori Marin, nominally in charge of land reform, objected and fled and eventually was executed. Many other anti-Batista, but not Marxist, rebel leaders were forced in to exile, purged in executions, or eliminated in failed uprisings such as those of the Beaton brothers.

To expand his power base among the former rebels and the supportive population, shortly after taking power the new Cuban government also created a Revolutionary militia. Castro also initiated Committees for the Defense of the Revolution or CDRs in late September of 1960. Informants became rampant within the population. The CDR’s were tasked with the responsibility of keeping "vigilance against counter-revolutionary activity." Local CDR’s were also tasked with keeping a detailed record of each neighborhood’s inhabitant’s spending habits, level of contact with foreigners, their work and education history, and any "suspicious" behavior.^[6]

Cuba began expropriating land and private property in Cuba under the auspices of the Agrarian Reform law of May 1959. Cuban lawyer Mario Lazo writes that farms of any size could be and were seized by the government. Land, businesses, and companies owned by upper and middle class Cubans were also nationalized, including the plantations owned by Fidel Castro's family. By the end of 1960, the revolutionary government had nationalized more than $25 billion of private property owned by Cubans.^[7] Cuba also nationalized all United States and other foreign-owned property in the nation on August 6, 1960. The United States, in turn, responded by freezing all Cuban assets in the US and tightening the embargo on Cuba, which is still in place after more than 45 years.^[8]

Many attempts have been made by the U.S. to overthrow Cuba's government. One of the most notorious is the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion at the height of the Cold War, but after the Cuban Missile Crisis, it promised verbally to never invade the island. In July 1961, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (IRO) was formed by the merger of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Revolutionary Movement, the People's Socialist Party (the old Communist Party) led by Blas Roca and the Revolutionary Directorate March 13th led by Faure Chomón[2]. On March 26, 1962 the IRO became the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution (PURSC) which, in turn, became the Communist Party of Cuba on October 3, 1965 with Castro as First Secretary.

Desperate but unsuccessful rebellions known as the War Against the Bandits continued until about 1965.

Notes

[a] Fermoselle, Rafael The Evolution of the Cuban Military: 1492-1986 Miami, Ediciones Universal, 1987

[b] Pawley, William D. Unpublished manuscript and notes - A Concise Overview of the Central Intelligence Agency's paramilitary operations in the Caribbean, 1945 to 1965 Miami, 1977

[c] Servicio de Inteligencia Militar Situation report, dated 23 November 1958 (Via LCOL Irenaldo Garcia Baez)

- Marquez Sterling, Carlos & Manuel Historia de la Isla de Cuba New York, Regents Publishing, 1975

- Portell Vila, Dr Herminio Nueva Historia de la Republica de Cuba Miami, La Moderna Poesia, 1986

- Fernandez Miranda, Roberto Mis Relaciones con el General Batista Miami, Ediciones Universales, 1999

- Dorschner, John & Fabricio, Roberto The Winds of December New York, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1980

Another available reference on post-Revolutionary Cuba is Cuban Revolutionis Post-Revolutionary Cuban Spanish: A Glossary of Social, Political, and Common Terms (Glosario de términos socio-políticos y autóctonos de actualidad (español-inglés)) by Jesus Núñez Romay .

Bibliography

Cuba Portal

• Bonachea, Ramon L. and San Martin, Marta. The Cuban Insurrection: 1952–1959. New York, Transaction Books, 1974.
• The Spirit Of Moncada: Fidel Castro's Rise To Power, 1953–1959. Bockman, Larry (Major USMC), 1984.
• Faria, Miguel A. Cuba in Revolution--Escape from a Lost Paradise. Haciendapub.com, 2002.
• Clark, Juan. Cuba: Mito y Realidad: Testimonio de un Pueblo. Saeta Ediciones, Miami, 1992.
• Sweig, Julia E. Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002.
• Lazo, Mario. American Policy Failures in Cuba--Dagger in the Heart Twin Circle Publishing Co., New York, Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: 68-31632, 1970.

• Radio broadcasts
  • Unimaps.
  • Radio on the Fringes: 'Clandestine Radio'.

External links

• The Cuban revolution: facts and quotes
• Cuban Air Force during the Revolution
• Guide to the Cuban Revolution Collection, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
• fidelcastro.cubasi.cu