Along with Raúl Castro, Fidel’s brother, they led a guerrilla war, which relied on a decisive strength of the civilian population. “The movement had the support of university students and peasants who opposed the dictatorial government of Fulgêncio Batista”, says American historian Franklin Knight, from Johns Hopkins University.
The guerrilla movement was born when Batista, a brutal and corrupt dictator, canceled elections scheduled for June 1952. Fidel, then one of the candidates, began organizing a rebel force to overthrow the government. Accompanied by 160 men, he attacked a military barracks on July 26, 1953, hoping to provoke a popular uprising. The initiative was a failure: Fidel was captured and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Freed by an amnesty for political prisoners, he went into exile in Mexico, where he met Argentine physician Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Convinced that a revolution using violent methods represented the only way to fight extreme poverty in Latin America, Che concentrated on the military strategy of the revolution, while Fidel tried to found the 26th of July Movement, a political organization that would unite Cuban dissidents in the effort to defeat Fulgencio Batista. With about 80 fighters, the guerrillas returned to Cuba in 1956 to seize power.
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Until La Victoria
Deep in the jungle, around 300 guerrillas detonated the Cuban dictatorship
1. Arrested for an unsuccessful coup attempt, Fidel and his brother, Raúl Castro, were granted amnesty in 1955 and went into exile in Mexico, where they conspired against the Cuban regime. There, Fidel founded a political organization, the 26th of July Movement, to which the Argentinean Che Guevara joined.
2. In 1956, Fidel, Raúl and Che, at the head of 80 followers, returned by boat to Cuba. They are attacked by the Cuban army: almost all the guerrillas are killed or arrested, with the exception of the three leaders and nine other men, who flee to the jungles of the Sierra Maestra, in southwest Cuba
3. With the support of part of the rural population, the guerrillas carried out attacks against government garrisons in Sierra Maestra, between 1956 and 1958. Che and Raúl carried out executions of government sympathizers, helping to consolidate the guerrilla’s control in the region
4. On March 14, 1958, an embargo is imposed by the United States on the sale of military supplies to the Cuban government. The measure weakens the Armed Forces of the dictator Fulgêncio Batista – many of his planes are prevented from flying due to lack of parts
5. In an attempt to quell the guerrillas, the government organized a major attack in July 1958. But the defeat was resounding: with small isolated battles, around 300 guerrillas surrounded 1,200 soldiers. The Army loses 500 men, against only three guerrilla casualties
6. The series of guerrilla triumphs was almost interrupted with the Battle of Las Mercedes, between July 29 and August 8, 1958. Fidel Castro lost 70 guerrillas, almost a third of his force, and proposed a ceasefire. The guerrillas return to Sierra Maestra, where they regroup to continue fighting
7. On January 1, 1959, with government forces demoralized and rapidly disintegrating – desertion levels were very high – two important cities in the country, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba, were occupied by the guerrillas. Realizing that defeat was inevitable, the dictator Fulgêncio Batista flees Cuba and the revolutionary forces enter the capital, Havana, on the same day, taking power.
8. The arrival of Fidel and Che to power brought great advances in the social area, especially in health and education. But the brutality continued: after the revolutionaries seize power, hundreds of former regime supporters, police and soldiers are tried for human rights violations. many are shot