The Escambray rebellion was an armed conflict from 1959 to 1965 in the
Escambray Mountains
The Escambray Mountains () are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.
Overview
The Escambray Mountains are located in the south-central region of the island, extending a ...
during which several insurgent groups fought against the
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
n government led by
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 20 ...
. The military operation against the rebellion was called the Struggle Against Bandits ( es, Lucha contra Bandidos, or LCB) by the Cuban government.
The rebels were a mix of former
Batista soldiers, local farmers, and leftist ex-guerrillas who had fought alongside Castro against Batista during the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
. The end result was the elimination of all insurgents by Cuban government forces in 1965.
Beginning
The uprising began almost immediately after the success of the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
in 1959. It was led by an ex-guerrilla that had fought against Batista before, but rejected the socialist turn the Cuban Revolution had taken and the ensuing close ties with the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. Small landowning farmers, who disagreed with the socialist government's collectivization of Cuban farmlands also played a central role in the failed rebellion. The uprising was also secretly backed by the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
and the
Eisenhower administration
Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure as the 34th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1953, and ended on January 20, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican from Kansas, took office following a landslide victory ...
because of Castro's ties with the Soviet Union.
The insurgent ''guajiro'' rural farmers were aided by some former
Batista forces but were led mostly by former
DRE rebels (13 March Movement), such as the anti-communists Osvaldo Ramirez and Comandante
William Alexander Morgan
William Alexander Morgan (April 19, 1928 – March 11, 1961) was a United States citizen who fought in the Cuban Revolution, leading a band of rebels that drove the Cuban army from key positions in the central mountains as part of Second Nationa ...
, both of whom had fought Batista's ''casquitos'' in the same area only a few years before (Morgan himself was executed in 1961, long before the resistance ended). Ramirez and Morgan were viewed by the United States as potential pro-democracy options for Cuba and sent CIA-trained Cuban exiles to promote and spread word of them being an alternative to Castro.
Insurgency
The CIA provided some aid to the insurgents but withdrew all support after the failed
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
in 1961, ensuring their ultimate defeat. Some of the failures could be attributed to Castro's "roll up" of CIA operatives in Cuba.
[Volkman, 1995.] After the Bay of Pigs failure, Osvaldo Ramirez returned to the
Escambray Mountains
The Escambray Mountains () are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.
Overview
The Escambray Mountains are located in the south-central region of the island, extending a ...
and declined an offer by Castro's emissary, Comandante Faure Chomón, to surrender.
[Faria, pp. 88-89.]
The main tactic of the Cuban government was to deploy thousands of troops against small groups of rebels, forming progressively-constricting rings of encirclement.
[Encinosa, Unvanquished, pp. 73–86.] The communist leaders that Castro sent to clear the Escambray Mountains were ordered to exterminate the rebels. They were to "comb the brush elbow to elbow" until they had completely cleared the hills of anti-communist rebels.
[Faria, pp. 105-115.] The leaders of the ''Lucha contra bandidos'' counter-insurgency forces were Commandantes Raul Menendez Tomassevich, a founding member of the
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba ( es, Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26 ...
, and Lizardo Proenza.
Defeat
Both their smaller numbers and the lack of outside assistance, particularly supplies, eventually led to the rebels' defeat.
Cuban forces used sweeps by long columns of
militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
, which cost the government substantial losses but ultimately won the war. The Spanish-Soviet advisor
Francisco Ciutat de Miguel Francisco Ciutat de Miguel, known as Angelito (1909 – November 30, 1986), was a Spanish communist, lieutenant of infantry and commander.
Spanish Civil War
He fought the Battle of Santander, during the Spanish Civil War, in the summer of 1937 ...
, who was also present at the
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fin ...
, played a major role in the pacification operation. Castro employed overwhelming force, at times sending in as many as 250,000 men, almost all of whom (including 3,500 out of the 4,000 government fatalities) were militia.
[ (see Puebla).] The insurgency was eventually crushed by the Castro's use of their vastly-superior numbers. Some of the insurgents ultimately surrendered but were immediately executed by firing squad. Only a handful managed to escape.
[Franqui (1984), pp. 111–115.]
Legacy
The War Against the Bandits lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the previous struggle against Batista's forces.
[Ros (2006) pp. 159–201.]
Raúl Castro
Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz (; ; born 3 June 1931) is a retired Cuban politician and general who served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, the most senior position in the one-party communist state, from 2011 to 2021, succee ...
claimed in a speech in 1970 that the rebellion killed 500 members of the
Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces
The Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias; FAR) are the military forces of Cuba. They include ground forces, naval forces, air and air defence forces, and other paramilitary bodies including the Territorial T ...
. The death toll of the rebels and others involved in the rebellion (such as civilians and pro-government militias) is unknown. Estimates for total combatant deaths range from 1,000 to 7,000.
[Joanna Swanger. "Rebel Lands of Cuba: The Campesino Struggles of Oriente and Escambray, 1934–1974." Page 243.]
See also
*
Basmachi movement
The Basmachi movement (russian: Басмачество, ''Basmachestvo'', derived from Uzbek: "Basmachi" meaning "bandits") was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim peoples of Central Asia.
The movement's roots ...
, a similar rebellion in
Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...
during the
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
*
Black Spring
*
Maleconazo
The was a protest on 5 August 1994, in which thousands of Cubans took to the streets around the Malecón in Havana to demand freedom and express frustration with the government. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cu ...
References
Sources
*
* De la Cova, Antonio Rafael. 2007. ''The Moncada Attack: Birth of the Cuban Revolutio''n. University of South Carolina Press. , p. 314 note 47.
* Dreke, Victor (Edited by Mary-Alice Waters) 2002. ''From el Escambray to the Congo''. Pathfinder Press, New York. , .
* Encinosa, Enrique G. 1989. ''El Escopetero Chapter in Escambray: La Guerra Olvidada, Un Libro Historico de Los Combatientes Anticastristas en Cuba (1960–1966)''. Editorial SIBI, Miami.
* Encinosa, Enrique G. 2004. ''Unvanquished – Cuba's Resistance to Fidel Castro'', Pureplay Press, Los Angeles, pp. 73–86. .
*
Faria, Miguel A. ''Cuba in Revolution – Escape from a Lost Paradise''. Hacienda Publishing, Macon, GA, pp. 88–93. .
* Fermoselle, Rafael 1992. ''Cuban Leadership after Castro: Biographies of Cuba's Top Commanders'', North-South Center, University of Miami, Research Institute for Cuban Studies; 2nd ed (paperback) .
* Franqui, Carlos 1984 (foreword by G. Cabrera Infante and translated by Alfred MacAdam from Spanish 1981 version). ''Family portrait with Fidel'', Random House First Vintage Books, New York. .
* Priestland, Jane (editor) 2003. ''British Archives on Cuba: Cuba under Castro 1959–1962''. Archival Publications International Limited, 2003, London .
* Puebla, Teté (Brigadier General of the Cuban Armed Forces) 2003. ''Marianas in Combat: the Mariana Grajales Women's Platoon in Cuba's Revolutionary War 1956–58'', New York Pathfinder (Paperback) .
* Ros, Enrique 2006. ''El Clandestinaje y la Lucha Armada Contra Castro'' (The clandestinity and the armed fight against Castro), Ediciones Universal, Miami .
* Volkman, Ernest 1995. "Our man in Havana. Cuban double agents 1961–1987" in ''Espionage: The Greatest Spy Operations of the Twentieth Century'', Wiley, New York .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Escambray Rebellion
20th-century rebellions
Aftermath of the Cuban Revolution
Opposition to Fidel Castro
Peasant revolts
1960s in Cuba
Rebellions in Cuba
Cienfuegos Province
Sancti Spíritus Province
Villa Clara Province
Cold War rebellions
Communism-based civil wars
Counter-revolutionaries
Conflicts in 1959
Conflicts in 1960
Conflicts in 1961
Conflicts in 1962
Conflicts in 1963
Conflicts in 1964
Conflicts in 1965
1959 in Cuba
1960 in Cuba
1961 in Cuba
1962 in Cuba
1963 in Cuba
1964 in Cuba
1965 in Cuba
1959 establishments in Cuba
1965 disestablishments in Cuba