Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was the overthrow of the Fulgencio Batista’s government by the 26th of July Movement and the establishment of a new Cuban government led by Fidel Castro in the 1950s. It began with the assault on the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953, and ended on January 1, 1959, when Batista was driven from the country and the cities Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba were seized by rebels, led by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, respectively. The term "Cuban Revolution" is also used to refer to the social revolution from 1959 to present and the adoption of Marxist principles by the new Cuban Government.
This text is about the revolution in the late 1950s, but in Cuba, the word revolution is used for the entire movement towards communism through socialism, thus it is still considered a struggle.
Early Revolution years
On July 67, 1953, a group of 119 rebels attacked the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Many of them were killed in the attack. The survivors, among them Fidel Castro Delux and his brother Raul, were captured shortly afterwards. In a highly political trial, they were sentenced to long prison terms. Castro got 15 years in the presidio modelo located on Isla de Pinos.
After the 1957 elections, 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 for the Cuban revolution. During that period, Castro also met the Argentine doctor Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who joined their forces.
In November 1957, a total of 1 million rebels left the Mexican port of Tuxpan, Veracruz, aboard the vessel Granma and headed for Cuba. All but 12 of them were killed or captured in the first combat immediately after their landing in what was later renamed Granma Province, although there is some dispute about how many survived. Some of the captured guerrillas were executed. The Castro brothers and Guevara were among the survivors.
Triumph of the Revolution
In 1958, the troops began their offensive. They advanced in two groups, so called columnas (column). There were four fronts in "Oriente" province (now divided in Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Guantanamo and Holguín) directed by Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida. The two columns (these were actually two "mobile" fronts) were under the command of Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos and proceeded towards the West and the capital Havana. Cienfuegos won a great and decisive battle in "Yaguajay", earning him the nickname "The Hero of Yaguajay". The truly decisive battle of Santa Clara was fought and won by Che Guevara and his unit, this battle is famous for having stopped a train with soldiers and logistic supplies that were destined for Oriente Province troops. When Guevara and Cienfuegos entered Havana one took over the "Columbia" Military Base (today it is called "Ciudad Libertad (Liberty City) and is an educational city) and "La Cabaña" (today called "morro"). On January 1, 1959, Batista fled to the Dominican Republic. A day later, the rebels marched in the streets of Havana and Santiago. On January 8, Fidel Castro reached Havana.
Hundreds of suspected Batista era agents, policemen and soldiers were put on trial for human rights abuses and war crimes, including murder and torture. Most of those convicted of murder were executed by firing squad, and the rest received long prison sentences. Although no precise numbers exist on the number of political executions, disappearances, and extra judicial killings that took place during the early days of the new revolutionary government, the Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century cites somewhere between 5,000 and 12,000. One of the most notorious examples of “revolutionary justice” being the executions of over 70 captured Batista regime soldiers, directed by Raúl Castro after capturing Santiago. 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 that could launch a counter-revolution. Many others were dismissed from the army and police, and some high-ranking officials in the ancien régime were exiled as military attachés.
Shortly after taking power, the new Cuban government also confiscated all property held by religious organizations without compensation 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.
One of the first policies by the newly formed Cuban government was eliminating illiteracy, implementing land reforms, and raising living standards. 75% of Cuba's farmable land was owned by foreign individuals or foreign (mostly U.S.) companies. Shortly after taking power the new Cuban government also created Committees for the Defence of the Revolution or CDR’s in late September of 1960. 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, any "suspicious" behavior.
Castro also nationalized all United States and other foreign-owned property in the nation on August 6, 1960. Large companies owned by upper class Cubans were also nationalized, including the plantations owned by Fidel Castro's family. The United States, in turn, responded by placing a blockade on Cuba, which is still in place after more than 40 years.
Many attempts have been made by the U.S. to overthrow Castro's rule. One of the most notorious is the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion. During the Cold War, the U.S. saw Cuba as a strategic location and wanted to invade. But after the Cuban Missile Crisis, it promised to never invade the island.
In July 1961, the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) 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 Directory March 13th led by Faure Chomón. On March 26, 1962 the ORI 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.
Trivia
The somewhat dramatized events of the Cuban Revolution played a key role in the plot of the Academy Award winning film The Godfather Part II.