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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.
Preparation for the Attack
After Batista's second military coup of 1952, Castro and his group began to train young men to engage in the struggle, along with other anti-Batista groups, against what they perceived to be an illegitimate government.
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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.
Preparation for the Attack
After Batista's second military coup of 1952, Castro and his group began to train young men to engage in the struggle, along with other anti-Batista groups, against what they perceived to be an illegitimate government. Castro claimed that they trained 1,200 men within a few months, training at the University of Havana and at firing ranges in Havana, disguising themselves as businessmen interested in hunting and clay pigeon shooting.
The weapons included 12-gauge shotguns, .22 rifles, a Thompson submachine gun, a .30-06 Springfield, and two Winchester rifles. Uniforms in the rank of Sargeant were either made, or bought by a man who had infiltrated the main barracks in Havana, in order to provide the men with disguises.
The night before the attack, the men gathered at a farm in Siboney, where they learned what the objective was. The plan was to secure the barracks and gain possession of the weapons stored within, and to use the building's army communications equipment to spread false messages for several hours to confuse the military. In the meantime, the weapons would be removed and hidden throughout the city to use in the continuing struggle, and Santiago's radio station would be taken to broadcast the speeches of Eduardo Chibás, in order to mobilize the public with the ultimate aim of bringing down the Batista government.
The men left the farm at 4:45 am on July 26, 1953, planning to attack at dawn. The date of the attack was specifically chosen because the fiestas in Santiago are held on July 25.
Attack on Moncada Barracks
On July 26, 1953, at 6:00AM, Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl led a group of approximately 120 rebels (with an additional 40 intending to take the barracks at Bayamo) in an attack on the second largest military garrison in Cuba, headquarters of the 400 (others say about 1,000) strong Antonio Maceo regiment, under the command of President Fulgencio Batista.
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 that a first small group to take the civilian hospital at the rear of the barracks, a second group would take the Audiencia Building (Palacio de Justicia), and a third group of 90 men, led by Castro, would take the barracks, including the radio transmitter within it.
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. In Castro's autobiography, he claims that he drove his car into a group of soldiers at the gate who had realized an attack was in progress. The men in the cars behind him jumped out of their cars, believing they were inside the barracks, and the alarm was sounded before the barracks had been infiltrated. According to Castro, this was the fatal mistake in the operation. 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. (Castro recollects that five were killed in the fighting, and fifty-six were "murdered" later by the Batista regime.) Half of the men captured were tortured to death. 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.
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. 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.
See also
Further reading
- de La Cova, Antonio Rafael. The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolution. 2007 . University of South Carolina Press ISBN 1570036721
- 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)
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