AnarWiki/markdown/Cuban_Revolution.md

The **Cuban Revolution** was a revolution against the [Batista
Dictatorship](Batista_Dictatorship "wikilink") in
[Cuba](Cuba "wikilink") which began in 1953 and ended in 1959 that
eventually resulted in Cuba's turn towards
[Marxist-Leninism](Marxist-Leninism "wikilink"). Led mainly by [Fidel
Castro](Fidel_Castro "wikilink"), [Che Guevara](Che_Guevara "wikilink")
and [Camilo Cienfuegos](Camilo_Cienfuegos "wikilink"), the revolution
was highly successful and not only led to the creation of one of the
most controversial socialist states but also inspired a new generation
of leftist movements, uprisings, and guerilla wars.

## Background

Following the US invasion of Cuba in 1898 and the country's eventual
independence, there was a long period of instability marked by coups and
revolts. Although Fulgencio Batista originally served as a progressive
president from 1940 to 1944, he became a violent dictator in 1952,
cancelling elections. The country, although prosperous, was plagued by a
massive urban-rural divide, extreme poverty, racism and an increase in
organised crime. It has even been suggested that Cuba was becoming a
neocolony of the US.

In 1952, Fidel Castro, then a young lawyer and activist, petitioned for
the overthrow of Batista, whom he accused of corruption and tyranny.
However, Castro's constitutional arguments were rejected by the Cuban
courts. After deciding that the Cuban regime could not be replaced
through legal means, Castro resolved to launch an armed revolution. To
this end, he and his brother [Raúl](Raul_Castro "wikilink") founded a
paramilitary organization known as "[The
Movement](26th_of_July_Movement "wikilink")", stockpiling weapons and
recruiting around 1,200 followers from Havana's disgruntled working
class by the end of 1952.

## Events

### Attack on Moncada Barracks and Arrest

The first action of The Movement involved 69 fighters who aimed to
attack multiple military installations and trigger a nationwide revolt
that would topple the Batista Dictatorship. The attack was a disaster
and the rebels fled after only an hour of fighting, soon many were
captured and imprisoned, including the Castro brothers.

### Mexico

Batista freed all political prisoners in 1955 after he was under
political pressure. The Castro brothers went to Mexico and joined many
Cuban exiles to help prepare for another attack on the Batista
government. Mentored by left-wing veterans of the [Spanish Civil
War](Spanish_Civil_War "wikilink") and meeting Che Guevara, the movement
began preparing for an attack and continuously trained in Mexico.

### Student Protests

By late 1955, student riots and demonstrations became common, and
unemployment became problematic as new graduates could not find jobs,
These protests were dealt with increasing repression. All young people
were seen as possible revolutionaries. Due to its continued opposition
to the Cuban government and much protest activity taking place on its
campus, the University of Havana was temporarily closed in 1956.

### Attack on Domingo Goicuria

Another, indepedent revolutionary group of 100 people, inspired by
Fidel's attack on Moncada, launched an attack on the Domingo Goicuria
military base, also failing. With 10 rebels dying and 3 government
soldiers dying.

### Granma Landing

The 26th of July Movement used the luxury yacht Granma to carry 82
revolutionaries to Cuba (despite only being built to carry a maximum of
25 people). The rebels began to journey into the Sierra Maestra
mountains, a range in Southeast Cuba, although Batista's forces found
them and killed at least 62 of the revolutionaries. The survivors were
lost alone or in small groups, wandering the mountains, but eventually
found eachother on their own or with the help of peasant sympathisers.

### Presidential Palace Attack

Main article: Havana Presidential Palace attack (1957)

On 13 March 1957, a separate group of revolutionaries – the
anticommunist Student Revolutionary Directorate (RD) (*Directorio
Revolucionario Estudantil*, DRE), composed mostly of students – stormed
the Presidential Palace in Havana, attempting to assassinate Batista and
overthrow the government. The attack ended in utter failure. The RD's
leader, student José Antonio Echeverría, died in a shootout with
Batista's forces at the Havana radio station he had seized to spread the
news of Batista's anticipated death. The handful of survivors included
Dr. Humberto Castello (who later became the Inspector General in the
Escambray), Rolando Cubela and Faure Chomon (both later Commandantes of
the 13 March Movement, centered in the Escambray Mountains of Las Villas
Province).<sup>\[49\]</sup>

### Strengthening insurgency and United States involvement

According to Tad Szulc the United States began funding the 26th of July
Movement around October or November of 1957 and ending around middle
1958. "No less than $50,000" would be delivered to key leaders of the
26th of July Movement.<sup>\[51\]</sup> The purpose being to instill
sympathies to the United States amongst the rebels in case the movement
succeeded.<sup>\[52\]</sup>

While Batista increased troop deployments to the Sierra Maestra region
to crush the 26 July guerrillas, the Second National Front of the
Escambray kept battalions of the Constitutional Army tied up in the
Escambray Mountains region. The Second National Front was led by former
Revolutionary Directorate member Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo and the "Yanqui
Comandante" William Alexander Morgan. Gutiérrez Menoyo formed and headed
the guerrilla band after news had broken out about Castro's landing in
the Sierra Maestra, and José Antonio Echeverría had stormed the Havana
Radio station. Though Morgan was dishonorably discharged from the U.S.
Army, his recreating features from Army basic training made a critical
difference in the Second National Front troops battle
readiness.<sup>\[53\]</sup>

Thereafter, the United States imposed an economic embargo on the Cuban
government and recalled its ambassador, weakening the government's
mandate further.<sup>\[54\]</sup> Batista's support among Cubans began
to fade, with former supporters either joining the revolutionaries or
distancing themselves from Batista. Once Batista started making drastic
decisions concerning Cuba's economy, he began to nationalize U.S oil
refineries and other U.S properties.<sup>\[55\]</sup> Nonetheless, the
Mafia and U.S. businessmen maintained their support for the
regime.<sup>\[56\]\[57\]</sup>

Batista's government often resorted to brutal methods to keep Cuba's
cities under control. However, in the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro,
aided by Frank País, Ramos Latour, Huber Matos, and many others, staged
successful attacks on small garrisons of Batista's troops. Castro was
joined by CIA connected Frank Sturgis who offered to train Castro's
troops in guerrilla warfare. Castro accepted the offer, but he also had
an immediate need for guns and ammunition, so Sturgis became a
gunrunner. Sturgis purchased boatloads of weapons and ammunition from
CIA weapons expert Samuel Cummings' International Armament Corporation
in Alexandria, Virginia. Sturgis opened a training camp in the Sierra
Maestra mountains, where he taught Che Guevara and other 26th of July
Movement rebel soldiers guerrilla warfare.

In addition, poorly armed irregulars known as *escopeteros* harassed
Batista's forces in the foothills and plains of Oriente Province. The
*escopeteros* also provided direct military support to Castro's main
forces by protecting supply lines and by sharing
intelligence.<sup>\[58\]</sup> Ultimately, the mountains came under
Castro's control.<sup>\[59\]</sup>

In addition to armed resistance, the rebels sought to use propaganda to
their advantage. A pirate radio station called *Radio Rebelde* ("Rebel
Radio") was set up in February 1958, allowing Castro and his forces to
broadcast their message nationwide within enemy
territory.<sup>\[60\]</sup> Castro's affiliation with the *New York
Times* journalist Herbert Matthews created a front page-worthy report on
anti-communist propaganda.<sup>\[61\]</sup> The radio broadcasts were
made possible by Carlos Franqui, a previous acquaintance of Castro who
subsequently became a Cuban exile in Puerto Rico.<sup>\[62\]</sup>

During this time, Castro's forces remained quite small in numbers,
sometimes fewer than 200 men, while the Cuban army and police force had
a manpower of around 37,000.<sup>\[63\]</sup> Even so, nearly every time
the Cuban military fought against the revolutionaries, the army was
forced to retreat. An arms embargo – imposed on the Cuban government by
the United States on 14 March 1958 – contributed significantly to the
weakness of Batista's forces. The Cuban air force rapidly deteriorated:
it could not repair its airplanes without importing parts from the
United States.<sup>\[64\]</sup>

### Operation Verano

Main article: Operation Verano

Batista finally responded to Castro's efforts with an attack on the
mountains called Operation Verano, known to the rebels as *la Ofensiva*.
The army sent some 12,000 soldiers, half of them untrained recruits,
into the mountains, along with his own brother Raul. In a series of
small skirmishes, Castro's determined guerrillas defeated the Cuban
army.<sup>\[64\]</sup> In the Battle of La Plata, which lasted from 11
to 21 July 1958, Castro's forces defeated a 500-man battalion, capturing
240 men while losing just three of their own.<sup>\[65\]</sup>

However, the tide nearly turned on 29 July 1958, when Batista's troops
almost destroyed Castro's small army of some 300 men at the Battle of
Las Mercedes. With his forces pinned down by superior numbers, Castro
asked for, and received, a temporary cease-fire on 1 August. Over the
next seven days, while fruitless negotiations took place, Castro's
forces gradually escaped from the trap. By the 8 August, Castro's entire
army had escaped back into the mountains, and Operation Verano had
effectively ended in failure for the Batista
government.<sup>\[64\]</sup>

### Rebel offensive

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Map of Cuba showing the location of the arrival of the rebels on the
*Granma* in late 1956, the rebels' stronghold in the Sierra Maestra, and
Guevara and Cienfuegos' route towards Havana via Las Villas Province in
December 1958

Map showing key locations in the Sierra Maestra during the 1958 stage of
the Cuban Revolution

On 21 August 1958, after the defeat of Batista's *Ofensiva*, Castro's
forces began their own offensive. In the Oriente province (in the area
of the present-day provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Guantánamo and
Holguín),<sup>\[67\]</sup> Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida
Bosque directed attacks on four fronts. Descending from the mountains
with new weapons captured during the *Ofensiva* and smuggled in by
plane, Castro's forces won a series of initial victories. Castro's major
victory at Guisa, and the successful capture of several towns including
Maffo, Contramaestre, and Central Oriente, brought the Cauto plains
under his control.

Meanwhile, three rebel columns, under the command of Che Guevara, Camilo
Cienfuegos and Jaime Vega, proceeded westward toward Santa Clara, the
capital of Villa Clara Province. Batista's forces ambushed and destroyed
Jaime Vega's column, but the surviving two columns reached the central
provinces, where they joined forces with several other resistance groups
not under the command of Castro. When Che Guevara's column passed
through the province of Las Villas, and specifically through the
Escambray Mountains – where the anticommunist Revolutionary Directorate
forces (who became known as the 13 March Movement) had been fighting
Batista's army for many months – friction developed between the two
groups of rebels. Nonetheless, the combined rebel army continued the
offensive, and Cienfuegos won a key victory in the Battle of Yaguajay on
30 December 1958, earning him the nickname "The Hero of Yaguajay".

### Battle of Santa Clara and Batista's flight

On 31 December 1958, the Battle of Santa Clara took place in a scene of
great confusion. The city of Santa Clara fell to the combined forces of
Che Guevara, Cienfuegos, and 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 by air for the Dominican Republic just hours later on 1
January 1959. Comandante William Alexander Morgan, leading RD rebel
forces, continued fighting as Batista departed, and had captured the
city of Cienfuegos by 2 January.<sup>\[68\]</sup>

Cuban General Eulogio Cantillo entered Havana's Presidential Palace,
proclaimed the Supreme Court judge Carlos Piedra as the new President,
and began appointing new members to Batista's old
government.<sup>\[69\]</sup>

Castro learned of Batista's flight in the morning and immediately
started negotiations to take over Santiago de Cuba. On 2 January, 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 8 January after a long victory march. His
initial choice of president, Manuel Urrutia Lleó, took office on 3
January.<sup>\[70\]</sup>

## Aftermath