Moncada Barracks - Preparation For The Attack

Preparation For The Attack

Almost all of Fidel Castro's followers were Ortodoxo Party Youth rank and file of the lower middle class or working class. Many were the products of broken homes and/or poverty, had a large number of siblings, or like Castro, were born out of wedlock. Their menial occupations included parking-lot attendants, delivery boys, street vendors, busboys, chauffeurs, and unskilled laborers. At least twenty-five rebels were raised without fathers. Only four of the 160 rebels were university graduates and most had only a primary education. Of the 137 insurgents whose ages are known, the average age was 26, the same as that of Fidel Castro. Nine rebels were in their teens, 96 were in their twenties, 27 in their thirties, and five over 40. The Afro Cuban composition of the group was limited to 2 blacks and 12 mulattos, partly because most biracial Cubans identified with Batista, who was of mixed blood. Castro avoided recruiting among intellectuals, who were more apt to challenge his ideas.

After Batista's military coup on March 10, 1952, Fidel Castro and his group began to train young men to engage in the struggle, along with other anti-Batista groups, against what they perceived to be an illegitimate government. Castro claimed that they trained 1,200 men within a few months, training at the University of Havana and at firing ranges in Havana, disguising themselves as businessmen interested in hunting and clay pigeon shooting.

The weapons included forty 12- and 16-gauge shotguns, thirty-five Mosberg and Remington .22 rifles, sixty handguns of various models, a malfunctioning .45 caliber submachine gun, twenty-four rifles of different caliber, including eight Model 1898 Krag-Jørgensen rifles, a .30-06 Model 1903 Springfield rifle, three sawed-off 1892 .44-caliber Winchester rifles, and a .30 caliber M1 Garand rifle with a folding metal stock.

Fidel Castro decided that army uniforms were needed for the Moncada attack. He discussed this with Calabazar cell leader Pedro Trigo Lopez, who suggested approaching his relative Florentino Fernandez Leon, a 26-year-old military hospital orderly in Jaimanitas. Fernandez agreed and received $200 to purchase surplus uniforms, weapons, and ammunition. He then pilfered from the military hospital laundry most of the blue uniforms needed to attire the rebels.

The night before the attack, the men gathered at a farm in Siboney, where they learned what the objective was. The plan was to secure the barracks and gain possession of the weapons stored within, and to use the building's army communications equipment to spread false messages for several hours to confuse the military. In the meantime, the weapons would be removed and hidden throughout the city to use in the continuing struggle, and Santiago's radio station would be taken to broadcast the speeches of Eduardo Chibás, in order to mobilize the public with the ultimate aim of bringing down the Batista government.

The men left the farm at 4:45 am on July 26, 1953, planning to attack at dawn. The date of the attack was specifically chosen because the fiestas in Santiago are held on July 25.