Moncada Barracks
Encyclopedia
The Moncada Barracks was a military barracks
in Santiago de Cuba
, named after General Guillermón 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 dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
After Batista's
military coup on March 10, 1952, Fidel 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 forty 12- and 16-gauge shotguns, thirty-five Mosberg and Remington .22 rifles
, sixty handguns of various models, a malfunctioning .45 caliber submachine gun, twenty-four rifles of different caliber, including eight 1898 Krag-Jørgensen rifles
, a .30-06 1903 model Springfield rifle, three sawed-off 1892 .44-caliber Winchester rifles
, and a .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle with a folding metal stock.
Fidel Castro decided that army uniforms were needed for the Moncada attack. He discussed this with Calabazar cell leader Pedro Trigo Lopez, who suggested approaching his relative Florentino Fernandez Leon, a 26-year-old military hospital orderly in Jaimanitas. Fernandez agreed and received $200 to purchase surplus uniforms, weapons, and ammunition. He then pilfered from the military hospital laundry most of the blue uniforms needed to attire the rebels.
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.
and his brother Raúl
led a group of approximately 135 rebels (with an additional 24 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 Colonel Alberto del Rio Chaviano.
The group formed a sixteen-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 group of twenty men led by Abel Santamaría would take the civilian hospital at the rear of the barracks, a second group of five men led by Léster
Rodríguez 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 weapon
s. 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.
Fifteen soldiers and three policemen were killed and 23 soldiers and five policemen wounded during the attack. Nine rebels were killed in combat and eleven wounded, four of them by friendly fire. (Castro recollects that five were killed in the fighting, and fifty-six were murdered later by the Batista regime.) Eighteen rebels captured in the Civil Hospital were immediately executed in the Moncada small-arms target range within two hours after the attack. Their corpses were strewn throughout the garrison to simulate death in combat. Thirty-four fleeing rebels captured during the next three days were murdered after admitting their participation. A handful of rebels, including Fidel Castro, escaped into the nearby countryside but were apprehended shortly thereafter.
The Santiago de Cuba Urgency Tribunal indicted 122 defendants in Case 37 of 1953 to stand trial for the July 26 insurrection. Fifty-one of the 99 rebel survivors who were captured were remanded for trial. Six indicted rebels remained hiding. The other 65 defendants implicated throughout the island were mostly political leaders and opposition activists not involved in the rebellion. Fifteen of them, including deposed President Carlos Prio Socarras
, Aureliano Sanchez Arango
, Jose Pardo Llada, and Communist leader Blas Roca, were underground or in exile and never went to court.
The trial in the Santiago de Cuba Palace of Justice began on Sept. 21, 1953 and ended on Oct. 6, 1953, after eleven sessions. The Cuban Civil Code of Justice, based on the Napoleonic Code practiced in Europe and Latin America, has the verdict determined by a panel of three judges rather than by a jury of peers as under "common law" in the U.S. and Great Britain. In accordance, after the accused heard the charges against them, they were called to testify on their own behalf. The defendants were represented by 24 attorneys. Fidel Castro assumed his own defense and lied under oath to avoid implicating rebels on trial. During the questioning of rebel witnesses, Castro raised accusations of the murder of prisoners by the military. In consequence, Moncada chief Col. Alberto del Rio Chaviano, impeded Castro from returning to court by claiming that he could not attend due to illness. The tribunal then separated Castro from the proceedings and granted him a separate trial. Nineteen rebels were found not guilty based on lack of evidence and their false testimony. Confessed leaders Raúl Castro
, Oscar Alcalde, Pedro Miret, and Ernesto Tizol received 13-year prison sentences. Twenty other rebels received 10-year sentences. Rebels Manuel Lorenzo, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Orlando Cortez Gallardo, who refused to participate in the attack at the last moment, got 3-year sentences. Dr. Melba Hernandez Rodriguez del Rey and Haydee Santamaria were given seven-month sentences since it was never proven that they handled weapons.
Castro, a lawyer
, 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.
The battle damage to the Moncada Barracks was quickly repaired by the military. After the revolution, the fortress was converted into a school on January 28, 1960. Three weeks earlier, Fidel Castro personally drove the bulldozer that demolished the crenelated outer walls. In 1978, Castro ordered the massive perimeter walls rebuilt and converted half of the main building into the 26 of July Historical Museum. The front of a building wing was chipped or riddled with bullets to simulate the original combat scars.
The museum is open daily and charges an admission fee.
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
in Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
, named after General Guillermón Moncada, a hero of the War of Independence
Cuban War of Independence
Cuban War of Independence was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War and the Little War...
. On July 26, 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries led by 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...
. This armed attack is widely accepted as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution
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...
. The date on which the attack took place, July 26, was adopted by Castro as the name for his revolutionary 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...
(Movimiento 26 Julio or M 26-7) which eventually toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
Preparation for the attack
Almost all of Fidel Castro's followers were Ortodoxo Party Youth rank and file of the lower middle class or working class. Many were the products of broken homes and/or poverty, had a large number of siblings, or like Castro, were born out of wedlock. Their menial occupations included parking-lot attendants, delivery boys, street vendors, busboys, chauffeurs, and unskilled laborers. At least twenty-five rebels were raised without fathers. Only four of the 160 rebels were university graduates and most had only a primary education. Of the 137 insurgents whose ages are known, the average age was 26, the same as that of Fidel Castro. Nine rebels were in their teens, 96 were in their twenties, 27 in their thirties, and five over 40. The Afro Cuban composition of the group was limited to 2 blacks and 12 mulattos, partly because most biracial Cubans identified with Batista, who was of mixed blood. Castro avoided recruiting among intellectuals, who were more apt to challenge his ideas.After Batista's
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....
military coup on March 10, 1952, Fidel 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
University of Havana
The University of Havana or UH is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1728, the University of Havana is the oldest university in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas...
and at firing ranges in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, disguising themselves as businessmen interested in hunting and clay pigeon shooting
Clay pigeon shooting
Clay pigeon shooting, also known as clay target shooting, and formally known as Inanimate Bird Shooting, is the art of shooting at special flying targets, known as clay pigeons or clay targets, with a shotgun or any type of firearm....
.
The weapons included forty 12- and 16-gauge shotguns, thirty-five Mosberg and Remington .22 rifles
.22 Long Rifle
The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge is a long established variety of ammunition, and in terms of units sold is still by far the most common in the world today. The cartridge is often referred to simply as .22 LR and various rifles, pistols, revolvers, and even some smoothbore shotguns have...
, sixty handguns of various models, a malfunctioning .45 caliber submachine gun, twenty-four rifles of different caliber, including eight 1898 Krag-Jørgensen rifles
Krag-Jørgensen
The Krag-Jørgensen is a repeating bolt action rifle designed by the Norwegians Ole Herman Johannes Krag and Erik Jørgensen in the late 19th century. It was adopted as a standard arm by Denmark, the United States of America and Norway...
, a .30-06 1903 model Springfield rifle, three sawed-off 1892 .44-caliber Winchester rifles
Winchester rifle
In common usage, Winchester rifle usually means any of the lever-action rifles manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, though the company has also manufactured many rifles of other action types...
, and a .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle with a folding metal stock.
Fidel Castro decided that army uniforms were needed for the Moncada attack. He discussed this with Calabazar cell leader Pedro Trigo Lopez, who suggested approaching his relative Florentino Fernandez Leon, a 26-year-old military hospital orderly in Jaimanitas. Fernandez agreed and received $200 to purchase surplus uniforms, weapons, and ammunition. He then pilfered from the military hospital laundry most of the blue uniforms needed to attire the rebels.
The night before the attack, the men gathered at a farm in Siboney
Siboney, Cuba
Siboney is a town in Cuba east of the city of Santiago de Cuba. In 1898 Siboney and the nearby village of Daiquirí were locations where American forces came ashore in the Spanish-American War...
, 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
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
radio station would be taken to broadcast the speeches of Eduardo Chibás
Eduardo Chibás
Eduardo René Chibás Ribas was a Cuban politician who used radio to broadcast his political views to the public. He primarily denounced corruption and gangsterism rampant during the governments of Ramón Grau and Carlos Prío which preceded the Batista era...
, in order to mobilize the public with the ultimate aim of bringing down the 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....
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
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
are held on July 25.
Attack on Moncada Barracks
On July 26, 1953, at 6:00AM, Fidel CastroFidel 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...
and his brother Raúl
Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008; he previously exercised presidential powers in an acting capacity from 2006 to 2008...
led a group of approximately 135 rebels (with an additional 24 intending to take the barracks at Bayamo
Bayamo
Bayamo is the capital city of the Granma Province of Cuba, and one of the largest cities in the Oriente region.The community of Bayamo lies on a plain by the Bayamon River...
) in an attack on the second largest military garrison in 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...
, headquarters of the 400 (others say about 1,000) strong Antonio Maceo
Antonio Maceo
Antonio Maceo may refer to:*Antonio Maceo Grajales, commander in the Cuban revolutionary army*Antonio Maceo, a municipality of Santiago de Cuba named for the general*Antonio Maceo Airport, serving Santiago de Cuba...
regiment
Regiment
A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...
, under the command of Colonel Alberto del Rio Chaviano.
The group formed a sixteen-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 group of twenty men led by Abel Santamaría would take the civilian hospital at the rear of the barracks, a second group of five men led by Léster
Rodríguez 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
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
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 weapon
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
s. 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.
Fifteen soldiers and three policemen were killed and 23 soldiers and five policemen wounded during the attack. Nine rebels were killed in combat and eleven wounded, four of them by friendly fire. (Castro recollects that five were killed in the fighting, and fifty-six were murdered later by the Batista regime.) Eighteen rebels captured in the Civil Hospital were immediately executed in the Moncada small-arms target range within two hours after the attack. Their corpses were strewn throughout the garrison to simulate death in combat. Thirty-four fleeing rebels captured during the next three days were murdered after admitting their participation. A handful of rebels, including Fidel Castro, escaped into the nearby countryside but were apprehended shortly thereafter.
The Santiago de Cuba Urgency Tribunal indicted 122 defendants in Case 37 of 1953 to stand trial for the July 26 insurrection. Fifty-one of the 99 rebel survivors who were captured were remanded for trial. Six indicted rebels remained hiding. The other 65 defendants implicated throughout the island were mostly political leaders and opposition activists not involved in the rebellion. Fifteen of them, including deposed President Carlos Prio Socarras
Carlos Prío Socarrás
Carlos Prío Socarrás was the President of Cuba from 1948 until he was deposed by a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952, three months before new elections were to be held.- Governance :...
, Aureliano Sanchez Arango
Aureliano Sánchez Arango
Aureliano Sánchez Arango was a Cuban lawyer, politician and university professor.Sanchez served in the government of President Carlos Prio Socarras first as Minister of Education and then as Foreign Minister...
, Jose Pardo Llada, and Communist leader Blas Roca, were underground or in exile and never went to court.
The trial in the Santiago de Cuba Palace of Justice began on Sept. 21, 1953 and ended on Oct. 6, 1953, after eleven sessions. The Cuban Civil Code of Justice, based on the Napoleonic Code practiced in Europe and Latin America, has the verdict determined by a panel of three judges rather than by a jury of peers as under "common law" in the U.S. and Great Britain. In accordance, after the accused heard the charges against them, they were called to testify on their own behalf. The defendants were represented by 24 attorneys. Fidel Castro assumed his own defense and lied under oath to avoid implicating rebels on trial. During the questioning of rebel witnesses, Castro raised accusations of the murder of prisoners by the military. In consequence, Moncada chief Col. Alberto del Rio Chaviano, impeded Castro from returning to court by claiming that he could not attend due to illness. The tribunal then separated Castro from the proceedings and granted him a separate trial. Nineteen rebels were found not guilty based on lack of evidence and their false testimony. Confessed leaders Raúl Castro
Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who has been President of the Council of State of Cuba and the President of the Council of Ministers of Cuba since 2008; he previously exercised presidential powers in an acting capacity from 2006 to 2008...
, Oscar Alcalde, Pedro Miret, and Ernesto Tizol received 13-year prison sentences. Twenty other rebels received 10-year sentences. Rebels Manuel Lorenzo, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Orlando Cortez Gallardo, who refused to participate in the attack at the last moment, got 3-year sentences. Dr. Melba Hernandez Rodriguez del Rey and Haydee Santamaria were given seven-month sentences since it was never proven that they handled weapons.
Aftermath of the Attack
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, later published as a speech and titled History Will Absolve Me
History Will Absolve Me
"History Will Absolve Me" is the concluding sentence and subsequent title of a four-hour speech made by Fidel Castro on 16 October 1953. Castro made the speech in his own defense in court against the charges brought against him after leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks...
, was written in his cell and smuggled to a friend from the 26th of July attack, Haydée Santamaria, page by page.
The battle damage to the Moncada Barracks was quickly repaired by the military. After the revolution, the fortress was converted into a school on January 28, 1960. Three weeks earlier, Fidel Castro personally drove the bulldozer that demolished the crenelated outer walls. In 1978, Castro ordered the massive perimeter walls rebuilt and converted half of the main building into the 26 of July Historical Museum. The front of a building wing was chipped or riddled with bullets to simulate the original combat scars.
The museum is open daily and charges an admission fee.
See also
- List of the Assailants of the Moncada Barracks
- Estadio Guillermón MoncadaEstadio Guillermón MoncadaEstadio Guillermón Moncada is a multi-use stadium in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. It is the second most important baseball stadium of the country, with a capacity for 25 000 spectators comfortably seated. The stadium was inaugurated the February 24 of 1964...
, a stadium also named after Moncada
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)