Moncada Barracks
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The Moncada Barracks was a military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, named after General Guillermon Moncada, a hero of the War of Independence. On July 26, 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. This armed attack is widely accepted as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. The date on which the attack took place, July 26, was adopted by Castro as the name for his revolutionary movement (Movimiento 26 Julio or M 26-7) which eventually toppled the government of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
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[edit] Attack on Moncada Barracks
On July 26, 1953, at 5:00AM, Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl led a group of approximately 160 rebels in an attack on the second largest military garrison in Cuba, headquarters of the 400[1] (others say about 1,000) strong Antonio Maceo regiment, under the command of President Fulgencio Batista.
The night before the attack, 25 July, nearby Santiago de Cuba played host to a festival, and the rebel group believed the soldiers would be suffering from hangovers. Also, the rebels had stolen army uniforms to wear during the attack. The group formed an automobile caravan in order to give the appearance of being a delegation headed by a high-ranking officer sent from western Cuba. Their plan was to take the barracks, including the radio transmitter within it, and use it as a centre from which to broadcast propaganda to the Cuban people, with the ultimate hope of bringing down the Batista government.
The attack began poorly. The caravan of automobiles became separated by the time it arrived at the barracks, and the car carrying the guerillas' heavy weapons got lost. Furthermore, many of the rebels who would have taken part in the attack were left behind for a lack of weapons. The rebels also lost their possibility of surprise when Castro lost control of his car, crashed, and someone from the rebels opened fire to cover him.[1] The net result of these events was the rebels being outnumbered more than 10 to 1.
Sixty-one rebels were killed in the fighting, and one third of them were captured. Half of the men captured were tortured to death[citation needed]. A handful of rebels, including Fidel Castro, escaped into the nearby countryside but were apprehended shortly thereafter.
After the attack the bullet holes and scars of battle were quickly covered up by the Batista regime. After the revolution the barracks, now a school and a museum, had holes drilled in the walls to commemorate the battle.
[edit] Aftermath of the attack
Castro, a lawyer, defended himself at his trial. His defense, later published as a speech and titled History Will Absolve Me, was written in his cell and smuggled to a friend from the 26th of July attack, Haydée Santamaria, page by page.[2] It became the platform of the 26th of July Movement, detailing plans for reform in Cuba, and was later frequently used in Castro's speeches. Castro was sentenced to death; however, at the urging of Roman Catholic priests, Batista abolished the death penalty just before Castro's execution, and he was sentenced instead to fifteen years in prison on the Isle of Pines (now known as the Isle of Youth).
Two years later, in 1955, a group of prisoners' mothers launched a campaign to free Castro and the other rebels imprisoned with him. As popular support for the rebels and opposition to Batista's rule mounted, a group of political leaders, editors, and intellectuals signed a public appeal demanding "liberty for the political prisoners". That year, the Cuban Congress passed a bill granting general amnesty to political prisoners. After being signed by Batista, the imprisoned rebels were freed.
[edit] See also
- Estadio Guillermón Moncada, a stadium also named after Moncada
[edit] References
- ^ a b Raffy, Serge. 2004 Castro el Desleal. Santillana Ediciones Generales, S.L. Madrid. ISBN 84-03-09508-2
- ^ Miller, Francesca. Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1991.
[edit] Further reading
- de La Cova, Antonio Rafael. The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. 2007 . University of South Carolina Press ISBN 1570036721
- Huberman, Leo; Paul M. Sweezy. Cuba: Anatomy of a Revolution.
- Merle, Robert (1965). Moncada, premier combat de Fidel Castro (in French). Paris: Robert Laffont.
- Navarrete Kindelán, Francisco J., Castro Convicto: (La Verdadera Historia del Ataque al Cuartel Moncada y del Desembarco del "Granma"). Miami: Ediciones Universal, 1991 ISBN 0897295889
- Campoamor, Fernando. Bibliografía del Asalto al Cuartel Moncada. La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1975. (Bibliography, in Spanish)
