Cuba Celebrates the 71st Anniversary of the Assault on the Moncada and Cespedes Barracks
On July 26, 1953, this insurgent action initiated a process of armed struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship.
On Friday, Cubans celebrate the anniversary of the insurgent actions that Fidel Castro and his revolutionary forces carried out on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago and the Carlos Manuel Cespedes Barracks in Bayamo on July 26, 1953.
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The main ceremony took place in the city of Sancti Spiritus, attended by Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Gen. Raul Castro, and Rebel Army Commander Jose Machado.
In Cuba, July 26 is known as the “National Rebellion Day,” a date on which the Cuban people honor the “Centennial Generation,” which initiated the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista (1952-1959).
Seventy-one years ago, in the early hours of July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro, Abel Santamaria, and Raul Castro led 131 combatants who attacked two emblematic barracks of the dictatorial regime.
The text reads, “It’s always the 26th. On July 26, 1953, Fidel Castro and a group of revolutionaries stormed the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban revolution. Today, Cuba has a great battle to win: the battle against the imperialist blockade.”
On that day, they also took over the Saturnino Lora Civil Hospital and the Palace of Justice, seeking to establish support points for those who were to take over the barracks.
The attack on the Moncada and Cespedes barracks aimed to initiate an urban insurrection, but its failure resulted in the imprisonment, torture, and death of many revolutionaries.
Although the insurgent actions of July 26 did not achieve their military objectives, they brought national attention to the existence of a group of young revolutionaries willing to go to the last consequences in their fight against Batista.
Fidel and Raul Castro were captured, tried, sentenced, and imprisoned for the attacks on the barracks. However, two years later, they were granted amnesty and allowed to leave the country for Mexico.
From exile, they organized the insurgent expedition that later enabled the establishment of the M26 guerrilla in the Sierra Maestra and the defeat of the dictatorship on January 1, 1959.
