The Battle of Santa Clara was a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n city of Santa Clara

Santa Clara, Cuba

Santa Clara is the capital city of the Cuban province of Villa Clara. It is located in the most central region of the province and almost in the most central region of the country.- History :Santa Clara was founded by 175 people on July 15th, 1689...

 by revolutionaries

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...

 under the command of Che Guevara

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

. The battle was a decisive victory for the rebels fighting against the regime of General Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....

: within 12 hours of the city's capture Batista fled Cuba and Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

's forces claimed overall victory. It features prominently on the back of the three convertible peso bill.

Attack on the city

Guevara's column travelled on 28 December 1958 from the coastal port of Caibarién along the road to the town of Camajuani

Camajuaní

-History:In 1819 was decided the construction of a new port in near Caibarién to replace an old one located in Tesisco. From that moment, settlers established in the surroundings creating a new village. In 1832 blueprints for the new town of Caibarien were presented, and finally in 1841 this city...

, which lay between Caibarién

Caibarién

Caibarién is a municipality city in the Villa Clara province of Cuba.Caibarien is known as "La Villa Blanca" for its sands and beaches. They are famous for their "Parrandas" along with Remedios and Camajuani.-History:The town was founded on October 26, 1832 from a map designed by Estratón Bauza...

 and Santa Clara. Their journey was received by cheering crowds of peasants, and Caibarién's capture within a day reinforced the sense among the rebel fighters that overall victory was imminent. Government troops guarding the army garrison at Camajuani deserted their posts without incident, and Guevara's column proceeded to Santa Clara. They arrived at the city's university on the outskirts of the town at dusk.
There, Guevara, who was wearing his arm in a sling after falling off a wall during the fighting in Caibarién, divided his forces (which numbered about 300) into two columns. The southern column was the first to meet the defending army forces commanded by Colonel Casillas Lumpuy. An armoured train

Armoured train

An armoured train is a train protected with armour. They are usually equipped with railroad cars armed with artillery and machine guns. They were mostly used during the late 19th and early 20th century, when they offered an innovative way to quickly move large amounts of firepower...

, sent by Batista to reinforce supplies of ammunition, weapons and other equipment, traveled along to the foot of the hill of Capiro, northeast of the city, establishing a command post there. Guevara dispatched his "suicide squad", a force under 23-year old Roberto Rodríguez (known as "El Vaquerito"), to capture the hill, using hand grenades. The defenders of the hill withdrew with surprising speed and the train, containing officers and soldiers from the command post, withdrew towards the middle of the town.

In the city itself a series of skirmishes were taking place between government forces and the second rebel column, led by Rolando Cubela, with the assistance of civilians providing molotov cocktails. Two army garrisons (the barracks of the Leoncio Vidal Regiment and the barracks of the 31 Regiment of the Rural Guard) were under siege from Cubela's forces despite army support from aircraft, snipers and tanks.

Capture of the train

Guevara, who viewed the capture of the train as a priority, successfully mobilized the tractors of the school of Agronomy at the university to raise the rails of the railway. The train was therefore derailed as it transported troops away from the Capiro hill. The officers within tumbled out asking for a truce. At this, ordinary soldiers, whose morale was very low, began to fraternise with the rebels, saying that they were tired of fighting against their own people. Shortly afterwards the armoured train was in the hands of the rebels and its 350 men and officers were transported as prisoners.

The train contained a considerable amount of weaponry, a huge bonus to revolutionary forces, and it was to become a basis of further attack in the hands of both the rebels and supportive peasants. Various reports have suggested that the surrender of the train and the truce were pre-arranged, relying on payments made to the officers by the 26th of July Movement

26th of July Movement

The 26th of July Movement was the revolutionary organization planned and led by Fidel Castro that in 1959 overthrew the Fulgencio Batista government in Cuba...

. Guevara himself described how the men were forced out by a volley of molotov cocktails, causing the armoured train to become a "veritable oven for the soldiers".

The capture of the train, and the subsequent media broadcasts from both the government and the rebels proved to be a key tipping point in the revolution. Despite the next day's newspapers hailing Batista's "victory" at Santa Clara, contrary broadcasts from Castro's rebel forces accelerated the succession of army surrenders. The reports ended with the news that rebel leaders were heading "without let or hindrance" towards Havana to take over the Government.

Capture of the city

Most garrisons around the country quickly surrendered to the first guerrilla commander who showed up at their gate. In mid-afternoon, Che announced over his Rebelde transmitter that the last troops in Santa Clara had surrendered.

External links

• Photographs of the Armored train surrender in Santa Clara by Latin American Studies
• The Battle of Santa Clara: The Legend of Che Guevara is Born by Christopher Minster
• A Front-Row Seat To Witness The Battle Of Santa Clara by Felipe Yanes, Tampa Tribune, January 25, 2009
• Che's Last Stand by Ed Ewing, The Guardian, December 31, 2008 An eye witness account by the president of Antillian College, a Seventh-day Adventist institution located across the road from the Central University. Brown tells of meeting commander Che Guevara
  Che Guevara
  Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
  
   and the college's choir sang at a special ceremony held at the Central University with the new premier, Fidel Castro
  Fidel Castro
  Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
  
  , in the audience.