March 13: Historic Milestone in the Struggle for Freedom

On March 13th, 1957, half a century ago, a strong
group of revolutionaries made up of university
students and workers got ready to take on the tyrant
in the Presidential Palace itself and carry out
actions aimed at destroying the bloody regime.

Reaching the Palace with the weapons was the
culmination of a long and complex process of
collaboration of the forces opposed to the pro
imperialist dictatorship and the organization of
activities that gradually committed the men on that
afternoon to launch one of the boldest actions of the
rebel struggle.

The events of the attack dates back to August of 1956
when Jose Antonio Echeverría, recently re-elected
President of the Federation of University Students,
FEU, and supreme leader of the Revolutionary
Directorate, met in Mexico with Fidel Castro and there
they exchanged opinions on the political situation in
Cuba and established a strategy to be followed by the
revolutionary forces.

The agreements adopted then were picked up in a
document known as the Mexico Charter, in which both
organizations agreed to coordinate their forces aimed
at destroying the tyranny and carry out the
Revolution.

The agreements outlined the spirit of unity of the
time, which despite the different points of views on
the application of the insurrectional line to be
followed, it was determined that each would develop
its actions according to specific plans, without
losing the common objective.

At the end of January of 1957, the Revolutionary
Directorate determined to attack the Presidential
Palace and simultaneously occupy the studios of Radio
Reloj, where Jose Antonio Echeverría would announce
the destruction of the Batista regime and call on the
population to go to the university to hand them
weapons and provoke a general insurrection.

The head of the attacking commando was Carlos
Gutierrez Menoyo, with second in command, Faure
Chomón, and to lead the support operation was Ignacio
Gonzalez. Jose Antonio as the main political leader
would be responsible for the control of the radio
station.

In the first days of March, the organization had been
able to gather enough arms for a commando of fifty men
and for the members of the support operation.

On Wednesday March 13th, once the news that Batista
was inside the Presidential Palace was confirmed; the
necessary measures were taken to carry out the
operation.

The attack began at 3:15 in the afternoon through the
back entrance of the presidential palace. After
overcoming the tough resistance of the guards and
gaining their entrance to the president’s office they
realized that he was not there.

The enemy’s strong resistance stopped the rebels from
advancing to the third floor. This factor and the fact
that the support action was not carried out forced the
attackers to begin retreating.

Of the fifty men that had arrived only twenty six were
able to retreat almost an hour later, many of them
wounded. In the entrance and interior there were dead
and wounded, although the tyranny did not report
prisoners as they were assassinated.

At the same time as the attack the student leader
arrived at the Radiocentro building on 23 and M
Streets in the heart of Havana?s Vedado district. At
3:24 Jose Antonio began his speech, but later the
transmission was interrupted for technical reasons.

This would be the last time that the Cuban people
would hear the voice of the beloved student leader
called ‘Manzanita’. On a side of the University
stairway Echeverría fell in combat a few minutes
later.

Different factors influenced the failed operation,
among them: the enemy’s knowledge of the combat area
and its vast superiority in handling weapons and
munitions; the number of casualties suffered by the
attackers in the first few moments, reducing its
combat possibilities, and the failed support.

In the attack against the Presidential Palace twenty
four combatants fell. Of the survivors of both
actions two were assassinated the following night and
another four, victims of a betrayal were killed 38
days later in the building in 7 Humboldt Street in
Havana.

However, the actions of March 13th, 1957, if not
achieving its main purposes, did shake the tyranny and
contributed to the increased efforts of the Cuban
people to achieve liberty through the armed struggle,
obtained the following year, 9 months and 18 days
after the historic events.