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