War against the Bandits

The War Against the Bandits (Spanish: Lucha contra Bandidos) is a name given by the Cuban government to a six-year rebellion (1959–1965) in the Escambray Mountains by a group of insurgents who opposed the country's government led by Fidel Castro. The rebellion is known abroad as the Escambray Rebellion.

The rebelling group of insurgents was a mix of former Batista soldiers, local farmers, and former allied guerrillas who had fought alongside Castro against Batista during the Cuban Revolution. The end result was the elimination of all insurgents by Cuban government forces in 1965.

Rebellion

The uprising began almost immediately after the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. It was led by former anti-Batista revolutionaries that rejected the Castro coup and the ensuing close ties to the Soviet Union and local peasants who were disenchanted by the Communist government's expropriation of their farmlands. The insurgent guajiro rural farmers were aided by some former Batista's forces, but were mostly led by former Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil rebels (13 March Movement), such as anti-communists Osvaldo Ramirez and Comandante William Alexander Morgan, both of whom had fought Batista's casquitos in the same area only a few years before (Morgan himself was executed in 1961 long before the resistance ended).^[1] The CIA provided some aid to the insurgents, but withdrew all support after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, ensuring their ultimate defeat. Some of the failures could be attributed to Castro’s "roll up" of CIA operatives in Cuba.^[2] Following the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Osvaldo Ramirez returned to the Escambray Mountains and declined an offer by Fidel Castros' emissary, Comandante Faure Chomón, to surrender. According to Dr. Miguel A. Faria, Chomon had been Ramirez's chief in the Revolutionary Directorate in the Escambray during the guerrilla war against Batista.^[3]

The Cuban government's main tactic was to deploy thousands of troops against small groups of rebels, forming progressively constricting rings of encirclement.^[4] The Communist leaders that Castro sent to clear the Escambray Mountains were ordered to exterminate the rebels. They were to "comb the brush, elbow to elbow" until they had completely cleared the hills of anticommunist rebels.^[5] The leaders of the Cuban counter-insurgent forces Lucha contra Bandidos (LCB) were Commandantes Raul Menendez Tomassevich, founding member of the Cuban Communist Party^[6] and Lizardo Proenza.^[7][8][9]

Superior numbers and the lack of outside assistance, particularly supplies, led to the rebels' defeat.^[10] The outnumbered anticommunist guerrillas often fought to the death.^[11] Cuban forces used sweeps by long columns of militia, which cost the government substantial losses but ultimately won the war. Hispano-Soviet advisor Francisco Ciutat de Miguel, who was also present at the Bay of Pigs Invasion, played a major role in the pacification operation. Castro employed overwhelming force, at times sending in as many as 250,000 government troops.^[12] The insurgency was eventually crushed by the Castros' use of vastly superior numbers. Some of the insurgents ultimately surrendered, but they were immediately executed by firing squad. Only a handful managed to escape.^[5][13][14]

The War Against the Bandits actually lasted longer and involved more soldiers than had the previous struggle against Batista's forces.^[15][16] Cuban government combat leader Victor Dreke gave a pro-Castro viewpoint in his 2002 book From el Escambray to the Congo. This is notable for its virulent condemnation of former comrades from the war against Batista.^[17] However, Dreke also describes the tactics and mindset of the Cuban government forces and its ruthless use of force and no-prisoners attitude.

References

Sources and further reading

• De la Cova, Antonio Rafael. 2007. The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-672-9, p. 314 note 47.
• Dreke, Victor (Edited by Mary-Alice Waters) 2002. From el Escambray to the Congo. Pathfinder Press, New York. ISBN 0-87348-947-0, ISBN 0-87348-948-9.
• Encinosa, Enrique G. 1989. El Escopetero Chapter in Escambray: La Guerra Olvidada, Un Libro Historico de Los Combatientes Anticastristas en Cuba (1960–1966). Editorial SIBI, Miami.
• Encinosa, Enrique G. 2004. Unvanquished — Cuba's Resistance to Fidel Castro, Pureplay Press, Los Angeles, pp. 73–86. ISBN 0-9714366-6-5.
• Faria, Miguel A. Cuba in Revolution — Escape from a Lost Paradise. Hacienda Publishing, Macon, GA, pp. 88–93. ISBN 0-9641077-3-2.
• Fermoselle, Rafael 1992. Cuban Leadership after Castro: Biographies of Cuba's Top Commanders, North-South Center, University of Miami, Research Institute for Cuban Studies; 2nd ed (paperback) ISBN 0-935501-35-5.
• Franqui, Carlos 1984 (foreword by G. Cabrera Infante and translated by Alfred MacAdam from Spanish 1981 version). Family portrait with Fidel, Random House First Vintage Books, New York. ISBN 0-394-72620-0 .
• Priestland, Jane (editor) 2003. British Archives on Cuba: Cuba under Castro 1959–1962. Archival Publications International Limited, 2003, London ISBN 1-903008-20-4.
• Puebla, Teté (Brigadier General of the Cuban Armed Forces) 2003. Marianas in Combat: the Mariana Grajales Women's Platoon in Cuba's Revolutionary War 1956–58, New York Pathfinder (Paperback) ISBN 0-87348-957-8.
• Ros, Enrique 2006. El Clandestinaje y la Lucha Armada Contra Castro (The clandestinity and the armed fight against Castro), Ediciones Universal, Miami ISBN 1-59388-079-0.
• Volkman, Ernest 1995. "Our man in Havana. Cuban double agents 1961–1987" in Espionage: The Greatest Spy Operations of the Twentieth Century, Wiley, New York ISBN 0-471-16157-8.

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