Triumph of the Revolution

Last updated
Triumph of the Revolution
Part of the Cuban Revolution
Habana entrance Fidel and Huber Matos.jpg
Entrance of Fidel Castro and Huber Matos into Havana. (January 8, 1959).
DateJanuary 1, 1959
Location
Cuba
Result
  • Batista flees Cuba
  • Revolutionary Directorate captures Havana
  • Fidel Castro enters Havana and establishes a provisional government.
Belligerents
Flag of Cuba (sky blue).svg  Cuba

Revolutionaries

The Triumph of the Revolution is the historical term for the flight of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959, and the capture of Havana by the 26th of July Movement on January 8. [1]

Contents

The flight of Fulgencio Batista from Cuba, is marked by an official holiday on January 1.

Events

Battle of Santa Clara and Cantillo coup

The Battle of Santa Clara consisted of a series of events in late December 1958 that led to the capture of the Cuban city of Santa Clara by revolutionaries under the command of Che Guevara. [2]

During December of 1958, top military commanders began to plot the removal of Batista. On December 24, general Eulogio Cantillo secretly met with Fidel Castro, and promised to arrest Batista. [3] [4] Cantillo promised that his new government would meld with the 26th of July Movement to create a new united government. [5]

Flight of Batista

On December 30, 1958, General Cantillo advised Castro that coup plans had changed. Cantillo privately advised Batista that he should flee the country. [6]

On December 31, 1958, at a New Year's Eve party, Batista told his cabinet and top officials that he was leaving the country and resigned. After seven years, Batista knew his presidency was over, and he fled the island in the early morning. [7] At 3:00 a.m. on January 1, 1959, Batista boarded a plane at Camp Columbia with 40 of his supporters and immediate family members [8] and flew to Ciudad Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. A second plane flew out of Havana later in the night, carrying ministers, officers and the Governor of Havana. Batista took along a personal fortune of more than $300 million that he had amassed through bribery and corruption. [9] Critics accused Batista and his supporters of taking as much as $700 million in fine art and cash with them as they fled into exile. [10] [11] [12]

Rebel occupation of Havana

Rebel soldiers at the Havana Hilton, January 1, 1959. CUBA. La Havana. 1959. New Years day in front of Havana Hilton, now Havan Libre.jpg
Rebel soldiers at the Havana Hilton, January 1, 1959.

Immediately after the flight of Batista, members of the Revolutionary Directorate of 13 March Movement occupied the University of Havana, and the Presidential Palace. The action was done under the pretext of anxiety. When Fidel Castro announced his victory, and the establishment of a provisional government, no mention was made of the involvement of other rebel groups in such a government. [13]

Freedom Caravan to Havana

On January 2, Castro called for a general strike, and began his trek to Havana in his self-stylized "Freedom Caravan". [14] The rebel army columns led by Che Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos reached Havana by January 2. The next day, Guevara secured La Cabaña fortress in Havana. [15] [16]

On January 7, Cuban television broadcast the execution of the commander of the Santa Clara army barracks. The televised execution was ordered by Che Guevara, who was the rebel commander of Santa Clara at the time. [17]

Castro entered Havana to the sight of cheering crowds on January 8. [18] After arriving in Havana, Castro ordered the Revolutionary Directorate to stand down, causing them to abandon their occupied positions. [19] This capitulation was likely because of the armed superiority of the 26th of July Movement. [20]

On the night of January 8, Castro delivered a speech at the Camp Columbia military base in Havana. In the speech Castro denounced other rebel groups who were hoarding weapons, an allusion to the weapon stocks of the Revolutionary Directorate. [18] Fidel Castro elaborated that weapons hoarding was pointless considering the shift to democracy, specifically stating: [21]

When all the citizen's rights have been restored, when elections are to be called as soon as possible - arms for what? Hiding arms to what end? To blackmail the President of the Republic? To threaten the peace? To set up gangster organizations? Are we to go back to daily shoot-outs in the streets of Havana? Arms for what?

Aftermath

Aristidez Diaz receiving his last rites before being shot at San Juan Hill. Fusilamiento de Aristides Diaz.jpg
Arístidez Díaz receiving his last rites before being shot at San Juan Hill.

The first legal act passed by the new provisional government was the legalization of the death penalty. This act was passed on January 10, two days after Castro's entrance to Havana. In the immediate aftermath of the triumph of the revolution, tribunals were set up around Cuba to convict former Batistiano collaborators. On January 12, Raul Castro ended a trial of collaborators early, and ordered all of the accused to be executed. These men were shot and put in a mass grave at San Juan Hill. [17]

Raúl Gómez Treto, senior legal advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, argued that the death penalty was justified in order to prevent citizens themselves from taking justice into their own hands, as had happened twenty years earlier in the anti-Machado rebellion. [22] Biographers of Fidel Castro often note that in January 1959 the Cuban public was in a "lynching mood", [23] and point to a survey at the time showing 93% public approval for the tribunal process. [24] Moreover, a 22 January 1959, Universal Newsreel broadcast in the United States and narrated by Ed Herlihy featured Fidel Castro asking an estimated one million Cubans whether they approved of the executions, and being met with a roaring "¡Si!" (yes). [25]

Holiday

Triumph of the Revolution
Cuban T-34s.jpg
The parade in 1961.
Official nameTriunfo de la Revolución
Observed byFlag of Cuba.svg  Cuba
TypeHistorical
SignificanceAnniversary of 1958 revolution
Date January 1
Next time1 January 2025 (2025-01-01)

The holdiay known as the "Triumph of the Revolution" (Spanish : Triunfo de la Revolución), also known as Liberation Day (Spanish : Día de la Liberación), is a celebration in Cuba of the anniversary of the victory of the revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959 which established the present government in Cuba. The holiday is celebrated on January 1 every year. [26]

The event is marked by military parades, fireworks and concerts throughout the country. The first parade of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces on the holiday took place on the Plaza de la Revolución in 1960.

Several exiled Cuban communities such as in Miami where many Cuban Americans reside celebrate May 20 as their national holiday in which Cuba became independent from the United States as opposed to the January 1 holiday. [27] [28] U.S. President Donald Trump released a statement in 2017 only to be met with resistance from the Cuban government labeling it "controversial" and "ridiculous". [29]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "The triumph of the Revolution consolidated on January 8, 1959". cubannews.acn.cu. Cuban News Agency. 2022.
  2. ↑ Tamayo, Harry Antonio Villegas (1997). Waters, Mary-Alice (ed.). Pombo : A Man of Che's Guerrilla : with Che Guevara in Bolivia, 1966-68 (1st ed.). New York: Pathfinder. p. 326. ISBN   978-0-87348-833-4.
  3. ↑ United States Army Combat Forces Journal Volume 15, Part 2. Association of the Unites States Army. 1965. p. 70.
  4. ↑ Gill (2005). Immortal Heroes Of The World. Sarup and Sons. p. 150. ISBN   9788176255905.
  5. ↑ Ross Leal, Pedro (2022). How the Workers' Parliaments Saved the Cuban Revolution Reviving Socialism After the Collapse of the Soviet Union. Monthly Review Press. ISBN   9781583679807.
  6. ↑ Coltman, Leycester (2003). The Real Fidel Castro. Yale University Press. p. 137. ISBN   9780300133394.
  7. ↑ Audio: Recalling Castro's Ascension – And CIA Reaction by Tom Gjelten, NPR Morning Edition, January 1, 2009.
  8. ↑ Cuba, Hugh Thomas, ISBN   0-330-48487-7, p. 687.
  9. ↑ Alarcón, Ricardo. "The Long March of the Cuban Revolution." Monthly Review 60, no. 8 (January 1, 2009): 24. doi : 10.14452/mr-060-08-2009-01_2.
  10. ↑ O'Meilia, Tim (October 4, 2006). "Widow of Cuban dictator Batista dies in WPB". Palm Beach Post .
  11. ↑ "Widow of Cuban strongman Batista dies". United Press International . October 5, 2006. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Batista Will and $3,270,000 Reported Found". The News Tribune. Fort Pierce, FL. Associated Press. January 25, 1959. p. 11.
  13. ↑ Stout, Nancy (2013). One Day in December Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution. Monthly Review Press. p. 326. ISBN   9781583673171.
  14. ↑ Fuentes, Norberto (2010). The Autobiography of Fidel Castro. W.W. Norton and Company. p. 569. ISBN   978-0-393-06899-3.
  15. ↑ Havelin, Kate (2006). Che Guevara. Twenty First century books. p. 57. ISBN   9780822559511.
  16. ↑ Guevara, Che (2024). The Awakening of Latin America. Seven Stories Press. ISBN   9781644211656.
  17. 1 2 Political Violence Belief, Behavior, and Legitimation. Palgrave Macmillan. 2008. p. 146. ISBN   978-0-230-61624-0.
  18. 1 2 Martinez-Fernandez, Luis (2014). Revolutionary Cuba A History. University Press of Florida. p. 47-48. ISBN   9780813048765.
  19. ↑ Kapcia, Antonio (2014). Leadership in the Cuban Revolution The Unseen Story. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 69. ISBN   9781780325262.
  20. ↑ Cuba. ABC-CLIO. 2013. p. 77. ISBN   9781610690126.
  21. ↑ "Address Speech by Commander-In-Chief Fidel Castro on his arrival in Havana on 8 January 1959". Marxists.org.
  22. ↑ Gómez Treto 1991 , p. 116
  23. ↑ Anderson 1997 , p. 388
  24. ↑ Taibo 1999 , p. 267
  25. ↑ Rally For Castro: One Million Roar "Si" To Cuba Executions – Video Clip by Universal-International News, narrated by Ed Herlihy, from 22 January 1959
  26. ↑ "Cuba celebrates triumph of its revolution". 4 January 2016.
  27. ↑ "The significance of May 20 for Cuban-Americans". 13 May 2018.
  28. ↑ "Why May 20 is so important to Cuban Americans | Opinion". 18 May 2017.
  29. ↑ "Havana reacts to Trump's May 20 message to Cubans | Miami Herald". Miami Herald . Archived from the original on 2017-05-22.
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