November 30 uprising, a demonstration of bravery and integrity

The uprising in Santiago de Cuba on November 30, 1956 was planned in support of the disembarkation of the Granma yacht, after the agreed password arrived in the form of a telegram: "Work ordered sold out. Editorial Divulgacion", which was the announcement of the departure from Tuxpan of the ship that would bring Fidel and the expeditionaries.

Frank Pais had explained to the group leaders that the objectives of the action were to surround and harass the Moncada Barracks with the firing of a mortar and to stockpile weapons, for which they would attack the Maritime Police, the National Police and assault hardware stores in Dolores Square. It was also conceived the incorporation of the combatants who arrived in the boat in the areas close to the disembarkation such as Puerto Padre, Guantanamo, Bayamo and Manzanillo.

The order for the national uprising arrived in the aforementioned telegram to Santiago de Cuba at 11:00 a.m. on November 27 addressed to Arturo Duque de Estrada, and was also sent to the provincial directorates of the 26th of July Movement in Havana and Las Villas; as well as to the Revolutionary Directorate.
From the early hours of the morning of November 30, a group of young revolutionaries showed their courage and fortitude by going out into the streets of the Santiago neighborhood of El Tivoli, where the olive green uniform and the red and black armband, symbol of the 26th of July Movement, were shown for the first time and among the fire of the shrapnel, voices were heard shouting: Long live Free Cuba!

Their purpose was to call the attention of the army of Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship and to focus the confrontation of the forces on them, in order to make possible the arrival of the Granma yacht, which on November 25 set sail with 82 men whose mission was to start the insurrectional struggle to liberate Cuba.
The plan was to take by surprise the Maritime Police, the National Police building and the Moncada Barracks. The Police Headquarters was attacked by the group led by Pepito Tey and Otto Parellada, but the surprise factor failed when they were discovered by a guard who fired his gun, and thus began an unequal battle for the assailants, numerically inferior.

Molotov cocktails were thrown over the police station, but Pepito Tey, Otto Parellada and Tony Aloma lost their lives in the action.

The seizure of the Port Captaincy was successful, by surprising the guards and achieving confusion. The weapons found became useful supplies for the 26th of July Movement.

As for the assault on the military fortress of Moncada, the mortar that was supposed to open a breach for the rebels failed at the crucial moment and the action was unsuccessful, although in the surrounding streets there were shootings.
There were also battles in other eastern regions and in the rest of the country numerous actions were carried out, mainly sabotage.

Santiago de Cuba became a city where the struggle continued throughout that Saturday, November 30, but on Sunday the revolutionary command gave the order to retreat. War planes flew overhead, the army of the tyranny was looking for the insurgents to kill them, while many residents gave protection to the assailants, treated the wounded and alerted them about the movements of the enemy forces.

The military were far from predicting that the uprising that occurred in the city of Santiago on that date, presumably defeated, would represent the beginning of the countdown of the tyranny.

Although the dangerous trip of the overloaded yacht through the rough sea from Mexico made its arrival impossible on the very day of the uprising, and it arrived on December 2, the prevailing climate of struggle was practically uncontrollable.

The armed forces had the false perception that with the harsh repression of the revolutionary movement in Santiago de Cuba and the assassination and detention of a good part of the "Granma" expeditionaries, the insurrection had been definitively defeated, without imagining that the uprising represented the first gesture that opened the definitive stage of the armed struggle.