LN Sl |UD I a

Lm Ja aad

tow the Cuban revolution began

The storming of Moncada

By V. BOROVSKY
HEN American-backed Ful-
B€ncio Batista engineered
@ coup d’etat on March
1952, and established a
Y dictatorship, a young
te Fidel Castro, collected
jh, LP Of patriots prepared to
lim (2° their country’s free-

ne £€neral staff of this
bis Included Fidel’s closest

ants — Abel Santamaria,
" as Tasende, Renato
& ~ Antonio Lopez Fernan-
c €dro Miret and Jesus
h De. It worked out plans
* Uprising to begin with
Be Of the second largest

Non St of Batista’s army, the
Pada barracks in Santiago.
*Y Positions in the city of

4
iyi Were to be taken simul-
“sly,

Castro and his comrades

p, ted On seizing the Monca-
ty PPly of arms and dis-

"8 them to the people to
Centre of rebellion. They
an appeal to the peo-
‘ @ program of reform
‘Ying?.'® put an end to- the
uban and foreign op-
Who were robbing the
‘hres 8nd to the poverty and
Yopje °" Of the bulk of the

fen attacks on the Moncada
Pepin: Y8m0 barracks were to
Wag 5:15 a.m., July 26. That
The q,/ Unday and a holiday,
“Stnival Of Santa Ana, when
‘Nacp,, .Merriment usu ally
Dy. tS peak:

is
bug With the thousands of
by Urrying to the carni-
‘Vine “in and car, 165 deter-
: Sung men, one doctor
.° Birls — Haydee San-
(Abel’s. sister) and

i. There would have
h times as many had
ad ‘€nough arms.

. ay cnight of July 25 they
ne fathered in a house in
i @ suburb of Santiago.
ote Out of the question;
ily ng rebels waited impa-
Abe °r the appointed hour..

Tead from a little vol-

ume of Lenin’s. Like Fidel Cas- |

tro and others of the group,
Abel was making a study of
Marxist literature.

Late at night Fidel issued his
last instructions. Abel was to
take control of the hospital
building opposite the barracks.
Raul Castro’s group was to
seize the Palacio de Justicia
and from there support the
main storming party, led by
Fidel. They donned military
uniforms to mislead the Batista
soldiers.

Late merrymakers were still
weaving through the garlanded
streets. No one paid heed to
the column of cars that sud-
denly swept by.

But one of the cars took a
wrong turn and carried nearly
half the column with it — the
reserve party, which was sup-
plied with the better part of
the arms. It became hopelessly
lost among the unfamiliar nar-
row streets and never did reach
the Moncada, with fatal con-
sequences.

The point chosen for assault
was Post 3 guarding the back
entrance to the fortress. The
group in ‘the first car, headed
by Renato Guitart, drove up to
the sentries who saluted at the

sight of the sergeant’s stripes. -

The post was removed. En-

trance to the grounds was open. .

Jesus Montane, with this ad-
vance group, tells the story:

“When we got out of the car
the sergeant in charge sensed
something wrong and touched
off the alarm. Ramiro Valdes,
Jose Suarez and I made a dash
for one of the barracks. We
took the 50 sleeping soldiers by

surprise. Covered by us, they

had to stop where they were.”

The plan was for the rest of
the column, with Fidel Castro
in the lead car, to enter through
the captured post.

Pedro Miret relates:

“I sat beside Fidel. Right
near the barracks we almost
ran into a foot patrol on its
round. One of the soldiers step-
ped toward us and Fidel ordered
one of our comrades to detain

sas

Moncado barracks, riddled with bullets, following the attack.

him. But the comrade fell as
he leaped from the car. From
the ground he shot as the sol-
dier came running up. The rest
of the patrol promptly opened
fire at our car and we had to
abandon it.

“Thinking we were already
inside the grounds, our com-
rades — 45 of them — left their
cars and joined in the battle.
The Batista men took stations
in the upper storeys and open-
ed fire. We had to take cover,
The element of ‘surprise hadn’t
worked out. And the reserve
group with most of our weap-
ons never arrived.”

Meanwhile, seven men led by
Raul Castro broke into the
Palacio de Justicia, disarmed
the nine guards, took up posi-
tions in the attic and joined the

battle. Abel Santamaria’s group

of 21 seized the Santurnino
Lorna hospital and covered
Fidel’s storming party. The at-
tempt to seize the Bayamo bar-
racks failed.

When it became clear the
fortress - could not be taken
Fidel ordered the men ‘to dis-
perse in groups of eight to 10.
Fernando Chepol reached Raul
with this information, but on
the way to the hospital he was
struck down by a bullet. By the

time Abel realized™the battle
was lost the hospital was al-
ready surrounded. |

Abel and his group tried to
pass off as patients. But an in-
former put the finger on them.
Dr. Mario Munoz was shot in
the back. The rest were taken
to the Moncada and cruelly tor-
tured in the presence of Hay-
dee and Melba.

Only Haydee and Melba es-
caped with their lives, and that
only because a campaign in
their defense swept the coun-
try. All the men were tortured
to death.

The retreat of Fidel’s group
was covered by six men led by
Pedro Miret and Fidel ‘Labra-
dor.

“When our bullets gave out,”
relates. Miret, “we made a dash
for the military hospital but
the Batista men caught us in
the courtyard and began to beat
us.”

With 18 comrades Fidel re-
treated to Siboney and then to
the Gran Piedra mountain dis-
trict. Peasants provided them

with food and information. Ba-

tista men blockaded the whole
district.

Fidel divided his party into
small groups. Some succeeded
in getting through the lines.
Others surrendered to civil au-
thorities. A detachment of the
tural guard under Lieutenant
Sarria captured Fidel, Jose
Suarez and Oscar Alcalde while
they were sleeping in an aban-
doned peasant hut.

Santiago was now plunged
into a blood bath. Batista’s
butchers seized people right and
left, innocent and “guilty” alike,
shot them down in the streets,

buried them alive, tortured
them. At Batista’s orders 10
captive revolutionaries were

shot for each soldier who died
in the battle of July 26.- But the
authorities did not venture to
shoot Fidel. Castro was tried in
court.

The hearing began with the
reading of a lengthy police re-
port. It was a “document” slan-

Cubans warmly greeted the revolutionary army, headed by Fidel Castro.

dering the revolutionaries and
picturing them as criminals.

Fidel, the first to be inter-
rogated, ridiculed it and pro-
ceeded to expose the crimes of

the Batista regime, using the

courtroom as a forum from
which to broadcast the truth.

The third sitting of the court
was opened without Fidel. “We
have here a report from Colonel
Chaviano,” the judge droned.
“The principal accused, —con-
fined in Boniato prison, has not
been brought to court because
of illness.”

“Fidel isn’t sick,” a woman’s
voice interrupted. Melba Her-
nandez rose and stepped for-
ward. “Fidel Castro has asked
me to hand the court this let-
ter, ‘written in his own hand. . .”

Fidel wrote that he was per-
fectly fit and that he was be-
ing kept out of court because
of his accusations against the.
government. é

The judges dealt out hard
Sentences: 13 years to Raul
Castro, Pedro Miret and two
others, 10 years for a group
of 20; and 3 years for the re-
maining three. Fidel was re-
manded to a special hearing.

On Oct. 16, 1953, he again
appeared before the court. This
time the trial was in camera.
The court granted Fidel’s re-
quest to allow him, as a lawyer,
to defend himself.

His passionate speech was an
indictment of Batista’s regime,
a regime established, he boldly
proclaimed, by the usurpation
of power, To put an end to the
country’s economic backward-
ness, he declared, to ensure it
genuine independence, to put
an end to the parasitism of the
ruling oligarchy, it was neces-
Sary to introduce agrarian and
other fundamental. social re-
forms. -

“You may convict me,” he
told the judges. “But history
will absolve me.”

The author of this account
gathered his material in Cuba
in interviews with Fidel and

Raul Castro and other partici-
pants of the July 26th. revolt.

July 31, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7