November 30, 1956, a luminous and combative day

 

From exile in Mexico, Fidel Castro said: "In 1956 we will be free or martyrs". He and Frank País, leader of the 26th of July Movement (M-26-7), agreed that an uprising would take place in the city of Santiago de Cuba and other cities simultaneously with the landing of the yacht Granma in eastern Cuba in order to keep Batista’s army busy.
 
The goal was to surround and harass the Moncada barracks and police headquarters with mortar fire as they waited for the expeditionary force to join the fight.
 
 The order for the national rebellion, sent on November 27 to Santiago de Cuba and M-26-7 directorates in other provinces after the departure of the Granma from Mexico, said: "Ordered work sold out". The yacht was expected to arrive on November 30, which did not happen due to delays caused by the bad weather and the overloaded conditions of the vessel.
 
Despite the initial success, the uprising died down by mid-morning after the fall of some of the main leaders. Upon recalling the popular participation, Frank País himself remarked: (...) "The entire population of Santiago, inflamed and supportive of the revolutionaries, cooperated as one with us. They took care of the wounded, hid the armed men, kept the weapons and uniforms of those persecuted; they encouraged us, offered their homes and warned us of the army's movements. It was beautiful to see a people cooperating with bravery in the most difficult moments of the struggle."
 
The dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista spread the lie of the end of the uprising in Santiago de Cuba and of the death of Fidel and the members of his expeditionary force, some of whom were killed while in the custody of the army.
 
The tyranny engaged in orgiastic New Year's Eve celebration, without imagining that it was the beginning of the countdown for Batista's government, which would fall a little more than two years later under the thrust of the guerrilla columns born from the expeditionary force that founded the Rebel Army on that historic December 2, 1956.