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Havana Presidential Palace attack (1957)

Coordinates: 23°08′30″N 82°21′24″W / 23.14167°N 82.35667°W / 23.14167; -82.35667
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Havana Presidential Palace attack (1957)
Part of the Cuban Revolution
Presidential Palace Attack Havana, Cuba. 13 March 1957
Date13 March 1957
Location
Havana, Cuba

23°08′30″N 82°21′24″W / 23.14167°N 82.35667°W / 23.14167; -82.35667
Caused byTyranny
GoalsRemove Batista from power
MethodsSurprise attack
Resulted inFailure
Parties
Batista military police
Lead figures

Carlos Gutiérrez Menoyo  †
Faure Chaumón Mediavilla
José Antonio Echeverría  †
Ignacio Gonzalez[1]

Menelao Mora Morales

Number
50
Casualties
Death(s)30
Arrested2
Detained2
Charged2

An attack on the presidential palace in Havana took place at around 3:30 PM on March 13, 1957. Perpetrated by the student opposition group Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil, it had the objective of killing Fulgencio Batista, but was unsuccessful.[2] According to one of the group's founding members, Faure Chomón, they were following the golpe arriba strategy and together with Menelao Mora Morales sought to overthrow the government by killing Batista.[3]

Plan

Havana Presidential Palace attack, March 13, 1957

The plan, as explained by Faure Chaumón Mediavilla, was to attack the Presidential Palace by a commando of fifty men and simultaneously support the operation by one hundred men occupying the radio station Radio Reloj at the Radiocentro CMQ Building to announce the death of Batista.[1] The attack on the palace would result in the elimination of Fulgencio Batista, the purpose of taking of Radio Reloj, was to announce the death of Batista and to call for a general strike, to incite the people of Havana to join the armed struggle.[1]

The plan to capture of the Presidential Palace by up to fifty men, under the direction of Carlos Gutiérrez Menoyo and Faure Chomón, this command was to be supported by a group of 100 armed men whose function would be to occupy the tallest buildings in the surrounding area of the Presidential Palace (La Tabacalera, the Sevilla Hotel, the Palace of Fine Arts) and, from these positions, support the main command in the attack of the Presidential Palace. However, this secondary support operation was not carried out as the men who were to participate never arrived at the scene of the events because of last-minute hesitation. Although the attackers reached the third floor of the Palace, they did not locate or execute Batista.[2]

Havana Police with machine guns immediately following the attack on Calle Zulueta, March 13, 1957.

They spoke in code order to frustrate a potential infiltration or a divulging of the attack in any conversation, it had been agreed early on that they would refer to Palacios as "la casa de los tres kilos."[1][a]

Radio Reloj

Attack at Radio Reloj in the Radiocentro CMQ Building, Havana, Cuba. 1957.[1]

The combatants departed from a basement apartment located on Calle 19 between Calles B and C towards the Radiocentro CMQ Building in three automobiles:[b][4]

  • First Automobile:
  1. Humberto Castelló Aldanás
  2. José [El Moro] Asseff
  3. Enrique Rodríguez Loeches
  4. Pedro Martínez Brito
  5. Aestor Bombino
  • Second Automobile:
  1. José Antonio Echeverría
  2. Fructuoso Rodríguez
  3. Joe Westbrook
  4. Otto Hernández
  5. Carlos [El Chino] Figueredo
  • Third Automobile:
  1. Julio García Oliveras
  2. Juan Nuiry Sánchez
  3. Mario Reguera
  4. Antonio [Ñico] Guevara
  5. Héctor Rosales[5]

The action of Radio Reloj, located in the Radiocentro CMQ Building at Calle 23 and L in El Vedado, was directed by José Antonio Echeverría who was accompanied among others, by Fructuoso Rodríguez, Joe Westbrook, Raúl Diaz Argüelles, Julio García Olivera, including reading a prepared statement announcing the execution of Batista by Echevarria:

"People of Cuba, in these moments the dictator Fulgencio Batista has just been justified. In his own burrow of the Presidential Palace, the people of Cuba have come to settle accounts. And it is we, the Revolutionary Directory, who in the name of the Cuban Revolution have given the shot of grace to this regime of opprobrium. Cubans listening to me. It's just been removed..."[2]

The operation failed because Batista was never killed and the troops guarding the Radio Reloj transmission tower in Arroyo Arenas knocked down the transmission. José Antonio was shot and killed by a Batista patrol car on the corner of November 27 and L, on his way back to the University.[1]

Havana Presidential Palace Attack_Echevaria's car.
Jose Antonio Echevarria, Dead on his way to the University of Havana from Radiocentro CMQ Building, March 13, 1957.

Participants

Truck used in the attack

Twenty men out of the one hundred of Batista's presidential guard were killed.[6] Forty-two men participated in the attack against the Palace, 34 were from the Partido Autentico, and the rest from the Student Directory.[7]

Dead in the Palace Action

[8] Menelao Mora Morales, 52, Carlos Gutíerrez Menoyo (brother of Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo), 34, José Luis Gómez Wangüemert, 31, José Briñas Garcia, 26, Ubaldo (Waldo) Diaz Fuentes, 28, Abelardo Rodriguez Mederos, 30 (driver of one of the cars), José Castellanos Valdes, (alias "Ventrecha"), 35, Evelio Prieto Guillaume, 33, Adolfo Delgado, Eduardo Panizo Bustos, 32, Pedro Esperon, 45, Reinaldo León Llera, 39, Norberto Hernández Nodal, 45, Pedro Nulasco Monzón, 30, Pedro Tellez Valdes, 37, Mario Casañas Díaz, 28, Asterlo Enls Masa de Armas, 25, Gerardo Medina Candentey, Carlos Manuel Pérez Domingues, 45, Angel Salvador González González, 54, Adolfo Raúl Delgado Rodriguez, 29, Ramón Alraro Betancourt, 36, Celestino Pacheco, Eduardo Domingues Aguilar, 50, Pedro Zayden Rivera, 25, Luis Felipe Almeida Hernandez, 35, José Hernández, Salvador Alfaro, Ormani Arenado Llonch. [3]

Dead at Radio Reloj attack

Jose Azef[or Asseff], Aestor Bombino, Jose Antonio Echevarria, Otto Hernandez, Pedro Martinez Brito.

Surviving the attack

Angel Eros, Amador Silveriño (driver of the "Fast Delivery" truck.), Orlando Manrique, Orlando Lamadrid Velazco, Sergio Pereda Velazco, Santiago Aguero, Manuel Toranzo, Ricardo Olmedo (injured during attack; later, shot for attempting to kill Fidel Castro), 40, Faure Chomón,[1] Antonio Castell Valdes, Juan Gualberto Valdes, José M. Olivera, Marcos Leonel Remigio González, Juan José Alfonso Zuñiga, Evelio Álvarez, Luís Goicochea.

Trial, April 5, 1957

The Havana Urgency court announced there would be a trial on April 5, 1957 for those charged in the March 13 attacks. Two individuals were under arrest to be tried: Orlando Olmedo Moreno, wounded during the attack, and Efrain Alfonso Liriano. All others connected with the attack either escaped or were killed.[9]

Public Act of Redress

Pro-Batista, Presidential Palace Attack Redress Demonstration, Havana, April 7, 1957

The public act of redress by the people of Havana for the assault of March 13 on the Presidential Palace took place on April 7 of 1957. It was reported that more than 250,000 people attended. Following is a report:

By R. Hart Phillips

Special to the New York Times.

HAVANA, April 7—Thousands of persons marched to the Presidential Palace this afternoon to signify their support of President Fulgencio Batista. Representatives of labor, commerce, industry, Government, political parties and supporters of the Administration filled the park in front of the palace and all adjacent streets. Placards and banners carried by the marchers proclaimed approval of General Batista’s policies, his public works program and his efforts to suppress the revolutionary activities of his enemies.One large banner said, “For Batista, in the Past, Now and Forever.”Another read “Five Hundred American Residents of the Isle of Pines Have Faith in Batista.”The keynote of the demonstration was “Peace.”Flocks of white doves were released during the demonstration to signify a demand for peace. Precautionary measures were taken by the Government to protect the demonstrators. Policemen armed with rifles surrounded the palace. On all near-by roofs policemen and soldiers armed with rifles and machine guns were on duty.[10]

Golpeando Arriba

On January 22, 1959, Fidel Castro explained to journalists gathered in the Copa Room of the Havana Riviera hotel, among other topics, that hitting up, "golpear arriba," was one of the "false concepts about the revolution" because "tyranny is not a man; tyranny is a system (...) We were never supporters of tyrannicide or military coups, [which tended] to inculcate the people a complex of impotence "[3] A few months earlier Castro had reprimanded Guevara for having signed a pact with Rolando Cubela, Chomon's lieutenant in the DR-13-3 guerrilla in Escambray mountains, the "Pacto del Pedrero". The letter is dated in Palma Soriano on December 26, 1958, in its crucial passage reads:

"You are committing a serious political error by sharing your authority, your prestige and your strength with the Revolutionary Directorate. There is no sense in raising a small group whose intentions and ambitions we know so well, and which in the future will be a source of problems "[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The house of the three cents.
  2. ^ This basement apartment was also used as a hiding place in the Humboldt 7 massacre

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "LA SIERRA y el LLANO" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  2. ^ a b "The Cuban Revolution Attack on the Presidential Palace (March 13, 1957)". Archived from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  3. ^ a b c "13 de Marzo: crisis del golpe arriba". Archived from the original on 2018-10-22. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  4. ^ "ANIVERSARIO DEL ATAQUE AL PALACIO PRESIDENCIAL DE CUBA". Retrieved 2019-08-12.
  5. ^ "CUBAN INFORMATION ARCHIVES, Doc 0128". Archived from the original on 2019-08-12. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
  6. ^ "Rebel Suicide Wiped Out" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  7. ^ "Verdades del Ataque al Palacio Presidencial el 13 de Marzo de 1957" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-10-28. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  8. ^ "No Eran Estudiantes los Que Asaltaron el Palacio" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-10-28. Retrieved 2018-10-28.
  9. ^ "Palace Attack Trials" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-10-28. Retrieved 2018-09-15.
  10. ^ "Thousands of Cubans March in Havana to Show Support for Batista". Archived from the original on 2018-10-30. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  • The Presidential Palace.
    The Presidential Palace.
  • An implied goal of the attack had been to penetrate to Batista's study located on the second floor at the northeast corner of the building.
    An implied goal of the attack had been to penetrate to Batista's study located on the second floor at the northeast corner of the building.
  • Jose Antonio Echevarria. Dead on March 13, 1957.
    Jose Antonio Echevarria. Dead on March 13, 1957.
  • Antonio Echevarria's girlfriend days after the attack. Havana, 1957.
    Antonio Echevarria's girlfriend days after the attack. Havana, 1957.
  • Antonio Echevarria's mother. Havana, 1957.
    Antonio Echevarria's mother. Havana, 1957.
  • Antonio Echevarria funeral. Havana, 1957.
    Antonio Echevarria funeral. Havana, 1957.

Additional reading

Attack on the Presidential Palace (March 13, 1957)
Cuando los universitarios se levantaron contra el gobernante de Cuba (FOTOS)
Revolt in Havana. Chicago Daily Tribune. March 14, 1957.]
No Eran Estudiantes los Que Atacaron el Palacio.
Asalto al Palacio Presidencial y toma de la emisora Radio Relo on YouTube
La toma de Radio Reloj on YouTube
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Havana Presidential Palace attack (1957).
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