The Militant - April 20, 2004 -- ‘Colonel, they didn’t know it was impossible’

Vol. 68/No. 15 April 20, 2004

New from Pathfinder:
ALDABONAZO: INSIDE THE CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY UNDERGROUND, 1952-58

‘Colonel, they didn’t know
it was impossible’
Account of 1958 revolutionary offensive
that toppled Batista dictatorship in Cuba

Reprinted below is a selection from Aldabonazo: Inside the Cuban Revolutionary Underground, 1952-58 by Armando Hart, recently published by Pathfinder in English and Spanish editions. Hart was a central organizer of the urban underground during the Cuban revolutionary struggle, and is one of the historic leaders of the Cuban Revolution.

This account of the struggle to overthrow the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, spearheaded by the July 26 Movement and the Rebel Army under the leadership of Fidel Castro, describes the events from the perspective of revolutionary cadres organized in the cities.

The Militant is publishing a series of excerpts from the book. This week’s selection is taken from Chapter 9, “1958: From Prison: The Isle of Pines to Victory.” In it Hart describes the final revolutionary offensive, as the Rebel Army columns under the command of Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos, Juan Almeida, and Raúl Castro advanced toward victory. During this time he was imprisoned on the Isle of Pines along with hundreds of other political prisoners. When Batista fled Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959, Hart and other leaders of the July 26 Movement organized the prisoners to seize the prison compound and then take control of the entire Isle of Pines.

Hart refers to Ramón Barquín, an army officer who had been jailed for his role in an anti-Batista military conspiracy in 1956. He was released the day Batista fled the country as part of a U.S.-backed attempt to replace the dictator with a military junta to forestall a Rebel Army victory, a maneuver that failed as the revolutionary forces prevailed.

*****
BY ARMANDO HART
Inside the prison we had a clandestine radio that was operated by compañero Casto Amador. It was the final weeks of December 1958. We spent the night of the 24th listening to the news about the advance of the rebel troops. We learned that the forces under Almeida’s command were approaching Santiago, that Camilo and Che were marching toward the center of the island, and that various towns in that region had been captured.

Regarding the westward invasion by the columns led by Camilo and Che, Barquín said, “That’s not possible; it’s not feasible militarily.” And a compañero answered him, “Colonel, they did it because they didn’t know it was impossible.” The general atmosphere in the cellblock was one of an ascending revolution.

It has been said that Ramón Barquín was promoting a coup d’etat from inside the prison, based on his contacts in the army and his connections with the U.S. embassy, and that his goal was to neutralize the victory of the revolution. Given his political background, it would have been absurd for him not to try to accomplish that, since it reflected his way of thinking.

Barquín was not a member of the July 26 Movement, and although we regarded him as a military man with democratic and constitutionalist ideas, we knew he was not a man of the revolution….

On January 8, 1959, the commander in chief and his victorious guerrilla combatants triumphantly entered Havana. Fidel was coming back four and a half years after his departure from Cuba, just as he had promised, with “the tyranny beheaded at our feet.”

The guerrilla force, and around it the development of an armed popular movement, was transformed into an effective form of struggle to achieve the revolutionary victory. Fidel’s tactics and strategy of the guerrilla struggle were conceived, brought to life, and reached epic levels during that brief but historic time.

During the second year of the war, Raúl left the Sierra Maestra to organize the Second Front; Almeida advanced to the outskirts of Santiago and organized the Third Front. In the final months, Che and Camilo marched westward across the immense plain that begins in Bayamo and Manzanillo and extends through Las Tunas, Camagüey, and Ciego de Avila up to the Escambray mountains, and then settled in the center of the island—a march with which they were commemorating the heroic feat of Gómez and Maceo sixty years earlier.

Fidel remained in the Sierra fighting decisive battles, direct-ing from there the strategy of the war, and becoming the most extraordinary popular leader of Our America.

The victory of the Rebel Army crowned the feat, and the liberators entered Santiago de Cuba, conquered Moncada, “avenged” the dead, and won the right to “break the hard crust of colonial rule.”

Popular insurrection plus general strike was the revolution’s final formula for eradicating the ignominious regime born on March 10, 1952.

The revolution of the peasants, workers, and students—under the leadership of the one-time university student Fidel Castro—had triumphed.

A decisive stage of Cuban history was drawing to a close. In twenty-five months four and a half centuries of colonial domination were swept away forever, a synthesis of almost a hundred years of struggle for independence and freedom.

Related articles:
How Rebel Army took the town of Guisa

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