Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was a revolution against the Batista Dictatorship in Cuba which began in 1953 and ended in 1959 that eventually resulted in Cuba's turn towards Marxist-Leninism. Led mainly by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, 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 founded a paramilitary organization known as "The Movement", 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 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

In 1957, another group of revolutionaries, the Student Revolutionary Directorate stormed the Presidential Palace in Havana and a radio station in Havana, attempting to assassinate Batista and overthrow the government.

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.^[51] The purpose being to instill sympathies to the United States amongst the rebels in case the movement succeeded.^[52]

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.^[53]

Thereafter, the United States imposed an economic embargo on the Cuban government and recalled its ambassador, weakening the government's mandate further.^[54] 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.^[55] Nonetheless, the Mafia and U.S. businessmen maintained their support for the regime.^[56][57]

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.^[58] Ultimately, the mountains came under Castro's control.^[59]

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.^[60] Castro's affiliation with the New York Times journalist Herbert Matthews created a front page-worthy report on anti-communist propaganda.^[61] The radio broadcasts were made possible by Carlos Franqui, a previous acquaintance of Castro who subsequently became a Cuban exile in Puerto Rico.^[62]

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.^[63] 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.^[64]

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.^[64] 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.^[65]

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.^[64]

Rebel offensive

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),^[67] 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.^[68]

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.^[69]

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.^[70]