Dreke fought in the Cuban revolutionary war, led by the Rebel Army, that overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in January 1959. In the early 1960s, he was a commander of the volunteer battalions that fought the U.S-organized counterrevolutionary bands in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba. In 1965 he was second in command of the column of Cuban internationalist volunteers, headed by Ernesto Che Guevara, that joined with national liberation fighters in the Congo. He subsequently carried out numerous internationalist missions in Africa.

In the opening months of 1959 Cuba's revolutionary government declared illegal the multiple forms of state-sanctioned racial discrimination against blacks. In March discrimination in employment was barred. Over the next several weeks, all stores, shops, and other public facilities including the beaches were declared open to blacks. Rebel Army soldiers and militia members enforced these new measures on the spot, and any facility refusing to abide by them could be shut down forthwith.

Mary-Alice Waters, president of Pathfinder Press, and Luis Madrid, a Pathfinder editor, conducted the first session of the interview with Dreke in Havana on Oct. 26, 1999. Pathfinder editor Michael Taber and Perspectiva Mundial editor Martín Koppel joined Waters in a second interview session on Dec. 2, 2001.

This book is now available, with simultaneous editions in English and Spanish. Copyright © by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission.
 

Waters: In January 1959 cadres of the Rebel Army suddenly found yourselves at the head of millions of Cubans more and more determined to transform the country from top to bottom. You began taking on responsibilities you previously would never have imagined.

What were you yourself doing during this initial period?

Dreke: At the triumph of the revolution, I held the rank of captain in the Rebel Army. At that time the top ranks were commander and then captain.

First I was a prosecutor for the revolutionary tribunal. Then I was a battalion chief in the Western Tactical Force.

The Tactical Force was created in May 1959. On May 20 we left Havana on foot with two battalions, headed for Pinar del Río. One went to Guanito and the other to Los Remates de Guane, toward the far end of Pinar del Río. The chief of this Tactical Force in the west was Commander Pinares, who later died in Bolivia with Che, and I was head of G Company and second in command of the 2nd Battalion.

The objective of this operation was to toughen up some compañeros who had joined the revolution in its last days. As we would take a city in the closing months of 1958, new compañeros would join our ranks. And some people hopped on the bandwagon following the triumph, trying to pass themselves off as combatants.

Our task was to identify the people capable of making the effort and then do careful work to train them. Because not everybody could physically withstand a march of hours and hours and hours--with little food, eating in camp, and hard work. They couldn't take it. So this allowed us to do a bit of weeding out. What remained of this Tactical Force was divided into three armies: Western, Central, and Eastern.

When the Western Tactical Force made this trip through the Pinar del Río mountains in May, we had already heard news that the notorious Corporal Luis Lara had risen in revolt there, but we didn't see anything. The trip also made it possible for me to get familiar with Pinar del Río, since the Rebel Army hadn't made it there during the war.

After I returned, Camilo [Cienfuegos], Rebel Army chief of staff, sent me to Sagua, as head of Squadron 35. At that time we had military squadrons for every region of the country.

Why did they name me chief of this squadron? Well, after the triumph of the revolution there were internal divisions in Sagua, and some problems surfaced among those in charge of the garrison. You'll remember, the Rebel Army didn't get to Sagua before the victory; we got there afterwards. And among those in the Sagua garrison were some people who weren't the best revolutionaries. The same thing happened in other places. These people had taken over and made themselves captains. As a result, some people from Sagua began to voice their complaints very loudly. It was a big mess, a scandal, causing political confusion.

Divisions had grown up between those who had been combatants on April 9 and those who hadn't.¹ This is explained in a speech Camilo gave in Sagua la Grande--it's printed in William Gálvez's book, Camilo: Señor de la vanguardia [Camilo: man of the vanguard]--where he read the riot act to people in Sagua for those divisions. And Camilo decided right then and there to name me chief of the Sagua squadron, since I'm from Sagua and knew the compañeros there.

That's why I spent some time in Sagua. Later, I was squadron chief in Cruces, which is also in Las Villas. I went there because of a very difficult racial problem that had to be dealt with.

There had been a dance in the park in Cruces shortly after the victory. As had been the longtime custom in this town, a rope was put up to divide the whites from the blacks--blacks on one side, whites on the other. This time, however, there was a big reaction, first of all from the squadron chief in Cruces, Captain Melquíades García. He was a compañero who was white, a fighter of the Rebel Army, who was highly regarded by all of us as a leader. And for the rebels, white and black were one and the same.

That night in Cruces, this Rebel Army captain removed the rope, and whites and blacks mixed together. Of course a big row developed. Some whites didn't like it, and I suppose some blacks didn't either. Some blacks crossed the line, and all hell broke loose.

The next morning I was summoned to the regimental squadron. I was to report to Félix Torres, inspector general of the regiment. I was taken to a meeting with the squadron chiefs--all of us were there--at which the Cruces events were reported. They described what had happened--the Rebel Army wanting unity among whites, blacks, everyone.

They decided to name a new chief in Cruces. Compañero Melquíades had done what was necessary, since that was what the revolution was going to do: remove the rope. But there had been a row. In fact, there were even leaders of the July 26 Movement in Cruces who had protested because we took down the rope.

"Dreke, you're squadron chief," they told me.

"If they reject blacks that way," I said to myself, "why are they sending me?"

Melquíades and I replaced each other. He was named head of Squadron 35 in Sagua, and I became head of Squadron 32 in Cruces. At that time you moved in a matter of hours. It's possible that in the two hours we've spent here talking, I could have been squadron chief in three different places!

"You go here," and then, "No, you go there. You go somewhere else. Get your stuff and go." No one could keep track. That's how it was in those days, a revolutionary whirlwind.

Well, I got to Cruces and introduced myself to the local authorities. They treated me politely. We greeted each other. And then it was explained that I was the new squadron chief.

The first thing I did was go for a walk in the afternoon, passing through the streets, unarmed, to talk to people there. I didn't carry my revolver.

Anyway, I didn't have any problems in Cruces. With the advance of the revolution, that type of racial discrimination has disappeared from our country.

Waters: What else were you involved in?

Dreke: I was in Sagua as head of Zone Number 4, which was an operational zone encompassing Sagua and Corralillo.

Why was that zone important in 1959–60? Because that was one of the areas where large numbers of weapons drops for the counterrevolutionary groups were made, together with infiltrations through Panchita Beach, Ubero Beach, Carahatas, and all those places. This was due to the characteristics of the Sagua area. There were some large landowners in the area, people who still had great economic power at that time. And it was by the coast.

I was given this mission, head of Zone 4. I worked there until January 13, 1960. Then I went to head up a militia training school in Hatillo,² where we prepared compañeros for militia duty in the Escambray cleanup, mainly milicianos from Las Villas.
 

1. On April 9, 1958, the July 26 Movement called a general strike throughout Cuba. Announced without adequate preparation, the strike failed. In response, the Batista forces stepped up repression, and a number of July 26 Movement members were arrested or killed.

2. There was also a school in La Campaña, which trained the first militias who defended the region.
 
 
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