Bravery, key to El Uvero's victory

Sixty-eight years have passed since the battle of El Uvero and the impact of such courageous action, which highlighted the boldness of a group of dignified Cubans, willing to do anything for the freedom of their homeland, still resounds in the ears of the locals, those of that time and those who were born later, of that coastal town in the Sierra Maestra.

In the early days of the triumph of the Revolution, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz made an assessment that remained for history about that battle, which took place at dawn on May 28, 1957, when with more courage than bullets the nascent Rebel Army staged the first major armed confrontation of the 26th of July Movement guerrillas, led by him against the forces of the dictator Fulgencio Batista.

"Our men took by assault every position, advancing over the bullets and fighting for a long time. All that can be said about the bravery with which they fought would not be able to describe the heroism of our combatants [...] Captain Almeida (Juan) led an almost suicidal advance with his platoon. Without such an outpouring of courage, victory would not have been possible," Fidel said.

In another revealing account of the action, Army General Raul Castro Ruz said that Juan Almeida Bosque was the soul of the combat and Che Guevara, who was then the doctor, began to stand out there as an impetuous guerrilla fighter in a combat that gave the Rebel Army the category of an experienced troop.
The Heroic Guerrilla with wise vision, defined it from that very moment as the moment in which the guerrilla gained its majority of age. And he also asserted that from that moment on, the morale, as well as the decision and hope of triumph of the rebels increased, some of whom were part of the expeditionary troops that disembarked, on December 2, 1956, on the Granma yacht, to be free or martyrs, as Fidel predicted.

Definitely 1957 is considered prodigal for the revolutionaries, because it had begun with the victories of La Plata, on January 18, and Arroyos del Infierno, on the 22nd of that same month, triumphs that had their transcendence, because they strengthened the confidence among the rebel ranks and demonstrated to the people that the revolutionary war was a reality.

In March of that year, a group of revolutionaries sent by Frank Pais Garcia, a senior leader of the clandestine struggle, would constitute the first reinforcement to arrive in the mountains, who, together with the Granma expeditionaries and the workers and peasants who joined the liberation effort, put the guerrillas in better conditions to undertake larger-scale actions.

"The (rebel) troops no longer had too many rifles; on the contrary, they lacked them. We were in a new era. A qualitative change had taken place; there was a whole zone where the enemy army tried not to make incursions so as not to run into us," wrote Che to highlight the valuable support.
El Uvero, belonging to the municipality of Guama, in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, was one of the points of the southern coast of eastern Cuba where strong garrisons of the Batista tyranny had been established, as part of the military reinforcement measures of the government army in the Sierra Maestra to confront the rebel troops.

The battle was particularly fierce because the rebels did not have open attack positions and had to expose themselves openly. After more than two hours of heavy gunfire the garrison surrendered and the guerrillas had to mourn the loss of seven men and eight wounded.

After the action, Fidel ordered Che to stay with the wounded: Captain Juan Almeida Bosque, Lieutenant Felix Pena, as well as Miguel A. Manals, Mario Maceo, Manuel Acuña, Enrique Escalona, Mario Leal and Hermes Leyva.

Guevara attended to those on both sides and made a “gentleman's agreement” with the barracks doctor to leave the most seriously wounded under the condition that they would be respected when they were detained.

A strong feeling of solidarity motivated the attack on the El Uvero barracks, explained Fidel in the Reflections published on June 1, 2012, since a few days before the landing of the Corynthia, led by Calixto Sanchez White, had occurred, and as there was experience of what could happen to them in the first moments, they intended to save the lives of the expeditionaries.

The shot that marked the start of the action came from the telescopic sight rifle carried by Fidel Castro, aimed at the radio equipment of the garrison to prevent it from requesting reinforcements, particularly from the air force. As always, he was the first in combat and in setting an example, which instilled bravery in the troops.

Of the 53 members of the Batista army that participated in the combat, 46 were casualties, among them 11 dead, 19 wounded and 16 prisoners, refers the account of the rebel chief to Frank País about this event, in which they took many weapons, such as Garand and Browing rifles, as well as a great amount of ammunition.
In El Uvero it was demonstrated that, through the guerrilla struggle, not only could the regime be harassed, but also that the Rebel Army developed the necessary potentialities for the seizure of power by the Revolution.

The weapons occupied and the growth in the ranks, allowed the creation shortly thereafter of a second column, the so-called Column 4, under the command of Ernesto Che Guevara, promoted to Commander on July 22, 1957.

Cuba pays special tribute, on the 68th anniversary of the action, to those who fell heroically, lieutenants Julio Díaz González, assailant of the Moncada and expeditionary of the Granma; and Emiliano Díaz Fontain; as well as the guerrillas Gustavo Adolfo Moll, Francisco Soto Hernandez, Anselmo Vega, Eligio Mendoza and Rigoberto Cilleros.

The locals of that town, who nowadays enjoy a new life thanks to battles such as the one described above, offer him their intimate homage with a people of deep-rooted patriotism willing to defend at all costs the work raised there and in the national geography, with the blood and heroism of their best sons and daughters.