The Moncada Attack: The Failure Of The Cuban Revolution

The Cuban government was not ideal for its people at the time, so they decided to initiate a change. Before Castro’s revolution, Cuba’s economy was highly based on tropical fruits, sugar, and tobacco. During this time, the government of Cuba mainly consisted of wealthy land-owning conservatives. Fidel Castro, a strong liberal who thought the Cuban government was corrupt, decided to bring together a band of two-hundred revolutionaries (Carey, Jr. 15). These revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Military barracks on July 26th, 1953 resulting in a failure that earned both Castro and the revolutionaries a ten-year prison sentence. Two years into his sentence, Castro was exiled to Mexico and began to plot another attempt in Mexico City. After many battles with Cuba’s National Army, Castro’s rebels were able to keep Cuba in a state of turmoil while other rebel groups were able to gain control. Through his actions, he was able to gain the support of the Cuban people who thought he was the logical choice for the new leader (Carey, Jr. 15).

Cuba “held an economical potential that attracted American business interests and a strategic significance for any Central American canal” (Goldfield, Abbott and Anderson, p 638). Cuban rebellion “erupted again in 1895 in a classic guerrilla war… [and] American economic interests were seriously affected” (book pg638). The Spaniards started confining the locals to concentration camps “where tens of thousands died of starvation and disease” (book pg 638). This gained a lot of publicity throughout America as journalist’s were reporting the harsh treatment, which helped persuade our nation to intervene. Furthermore, this led to growing tension between Spain and

In 1959, Fidel Castro led a group of rebel forces to end and overthrow Fulgencio Batista’s regime in an effort to free the Cuban people from his tyrannous rule. For very many different political reasons this has been portrayed as an act of great injustice and hypocrisy in the modern world. A lot of this has of course been advocated primarily by the US due to the high level of political tension between the two nations that developed in the mid 1950s. Believing this conventional wisdom that Castro was simply an evil communist who oppressed his people and stripped them of their human rights is very dangerous because it

about Cuba: the Castro brothers, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. The

The Cuban Revolution began in 1952 when a former army sergeant named Fulgencio Batista seized power during a contested election. Fulgencio was the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and dictator from 1952 to 1959. Another one of Cuba’s important men is Fidel Castro. Castro is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who governed the Republic of Cuba. Fidel and his partner Che Guevara were both in charge of the Cuban Revolution, and made the isolated Moncada Barracks his target. Castro estimated the trip would take 5 days. However, due to engine problems, him and his men arrived late in broad daylight. On the morning of July 23, 1953, Castro made his move, but he needed weapons, and he got them. 138 men attacked the Moncada at dawn, many were captured.

Castro had formed a revolutionary group called “The Movement”, as well as publishing a paper called El Acusador (The Accuser). Starting July 1952, Fidel and his revolutionaries went on a recruitment drive, gaining about 1,200 members a year. On July 26th, 1953, Castro and 160 of his revolutionaries led an attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago. The attack failed miserably and the revolutionaries were forced to retreat into the mountains. Another attack was being carried out on a civilian hospital, which was stormed by soldiers soon thereafter. The 22 rebels that carried out the attack were rounded up, tortured, and

“A revolution is not a bed of roses ... a revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.” – Fidel Castro, 1961. This statement was certainly true for Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries during the Cuban Revolution, an armed revolt that took place between July 26th 1953 and January 1st 1959, which ended successfully. During this revolt, many of Fidel Castro’s fellow revolutionaries were killed in this process of violent revolution (My Life, p133, 2006). However, Castro and his accompanying revolutionaries, of which he was the leader, also caused their fair share of deaths using brutality in the name of revolution and political justice. Using various combat tactics, the most prominent being guerrilla warfare, the

In April of 1961, Cuban exiles went forth with an attack aimed at the dictator of Cuba - Fidel Castro. This attack ultimately failed and backfired at

During the Eisenhower administration president Kennedy was informed about the preparation of the’’ Cuban exiles’’ for invasion of their homeland. The proposal projected that backing from the Cuban public and maybe the Cuban military that possibly would lead to the rebellion of Castro and to establishing of a non-communist government friendly to the United States. ‘’Kennedy approved the operation and some 1,400 exiles landed at Cuba's Bay of Pigs on April 17’’. But the whole force was either killed or captured, and the operation failed which the president took full responsibility for.

Castro opens up with listing many of the hardships: earning food without work, infrequent work that resulting in starving some months, benefits that are being taken away just to name a few, that the popular masses have to struggle with daily to emphasize the passion behind his movement (Castro 306). Castro speaks of the five revolutionary laws that would have been implemented following the capture of Moncada Garrison, The first and possibly most important, that the Constitution of 1940 be followed as written unless the people feel it necessary to

Fidel Castro’s gruesome attempt at claiming control of the Moncada Barracks ultimately backfired on him and created the spark for the Cuban Revolution. For years the Cuban government had claimed ultimate control over society which outraged

In March 1952, a Cuban general and politician, Fulgencio Batista, seized power on cuba, proclaimed himself president. Batista canceled the planned presidential elections, and described his new system as "disciplined democracy"; although he gained some popular support, many Cubans saw it as the establishment of a one-man dictatorship. Many opponents of the Batista regime took to armed rebellion in an attempt to oust the government, sparking the Cuban Revolution. One of these groups was the "26th of July Movement" headed by Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. Consisting of both a civil and a military committee, the former conducted political agitation through an underground newspaper while the latter armed and trained recruits to take violent action against Batista. With Castro as the MR-26-7's head, the organization was based upon a clandestine cell system, with each cell containing ten members, none of whom knew the whereabouts or activities of the other cells. Between December 1956 and 1959, Castro led a guerrilla army against the forces of Batista from his base camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains. The Batista's repression of revolutionaries had earned him widespread unpopularity, and by 1958, his armies were in retreat.

It all took place during the Cold War. Fulgencio Batista’s government before the Cuban Revolution was ineffective, incompetent, and dishonest. Batista ruled over Cuba as a dictator leading to dissent and widespread corruption in Cuba with the gap between the upper and lower classes very wide. Businessmen mostly associated with the American mafia established operations in Cuba. “The U.S. State department was more concerned with Cuba's stability and continued supplies of sugar than with the prevalence of graft and corruption.” The government of that time was serving the interests of US mostly and the interests of those ruling Cuba at that time as explained by the fortunes amassed by Batista et al, part of which was money deposited by Mafia figures such as Meyer Lanski. (Diaz-Briquets and Perez-Lopez 77) The

Castro intended on helping Cuba’s high poverty, but Castro did not turn Cuba into a democracy like he said he would (“Cuban missile Crisis”2). In 1960 the soviet premier attempted to convince Castro to become communist, soon after this castro became communist, probably influenced by the soviet premier (“Cuban missile Crisis”3). A new american president, that could probably change the war, was coming into office around this time, President Kennedy. The new president would take on the problem of this new cuban leader (International Encyclopedia of the… 1). Before him, Eisenhower trained about 1,500 Cuban Exiles in secret to try to take over Cuba, Kennedy allowed this to go on. On april 17, the exils attempted to invade Cuba(“Cuban missile Crisis”3). Since Castro had found out about the invasion, he was ready and defeated the the incoming force easily(“Cuban missile Crisis”3-4). The failed invasion seemed to help the Cuban opinion of Castro. He was now an obvious threat and so the U.S. decided to start operation Mongoose. Operation Mongoose was a secret operation to get rid of Castro, it was an operation where the U.S. would try to sabotage Cuba, but Operation Mongoose never ended up happening. The U.S.S.R. did not want to lose Cuba so they decided to secretly send weapons into Cuba, including nuclear weapons (“Cuban missile Crisis”4). These arm shipments would lead to one of the

On July 26th, 1953, Fidel Castro led one hundred and twenty nine men and two women in a daring assault against the Moncada army Barracks in Santiago de Cuba to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro’s plan to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista resulted in eight deaths, twelve wounded and more than sixty Cubans were taken prisoner to be tortured and then executed.