Cuban+Revolution+A-M

A ﻿is for Arsenio Martinez Campos He was the general sent to handle the situation with the rebels overthrowing the government. He tricked the revolutionaries into signing the pact of Zanjon which ended the war. He was the main general in the Ten Years War and also in the Cuban Revolution. He was most likely the reason that the war ended when it did or otherwise it would be possible that the war would still be going on today. [] B ﻿is for Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar took power following a September 1933 officer coup. Later he was elected president in 1940 but voted out of office in 1944. He ran for office again in 1952 but only three months before the vote was supposed to take place he staged a military coup, suspended the elections, and began to rule as a dictator. [] C ﻿is for Castro Fidel Castro, for the next seven years, attempted to overthrow Batista’s government. On July 26, 1953, Castro led an attack against the military barracks in Santiago, but he was defeated and arrested. Castro did not back down and gathered a new group of rebels in Mexico. On December 2, 1956, he was again defeated by Batista’s army and fled to the Sierra Maestra. He began using guerrilla tactics to fight Batista’s armed forces, and with the aid of other rebellions throughout Cuba, he forced Batista to resign and flee the country on January 1, 1959. Then there was Raul castro who was the leader of the rebels while Fidel Castro was in Prison and was essential to the success of the rebellion. [] D ﻿is for destruction There was a lot of destruction during this war. There was Fidel Castro and his group of rebels storming the Barracks. Then Fidel Castro also faced against the government again and lost with heavy losses to his side. Then as they were making their way across the swamps in hopes of surprising their enemy they were betrayed by their guide and were nearly all slaughtered. The total number of deaths are still unknown. [] E ﻿is for elections The Election of Carlos Prìo Socarrás marked the beginning of the feelings of unrest towards the current cuban government. Carlos was elected and just a short time later he was overthrown by the rebels led by Fidel Castro. One has to wonder if the election of Carlos Prio Socarras caused this war. The person opposite him was Eduardo Chibas, a man who had ran for president the year before and had lost. Chibas lost yet again and ended up shooting himself after being unable to keep a promise he made on a radio show. This man was the source of inspiration for Fidel Castro and was one of the reasons that he kept fighting. []

F ﻿is for Fidel Castro

Fidel was the main character in the Cuban revoltion and he is still the dictator today. On July 26, 1953, Castro and approximately 150 supporters attacked the Moncada military barracks in an attempt to overthrow Batista. The attack failed and Castro was captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.On December 2, 1956, Castro returned to Cuba with a boatload of 81 insurgents near the eastern city of Manzanillo. In short order, Batista's forces killed or captured most of the attackers. Castro, his brother Raul, and Guevara were able to escape into the Sierra Maestra mountain range along the island's southeastern coast. He then was successful in several other campaigns until he was betrayed and imprisoned. []

G ﻿is for Guevara

This man was a major figure in the Cuban revolution. Guevara became part of Fidel Castro's efforts to overthrow the Batista government in Cuba. He served as a military advisor to Castro and led guerrilla troops in battles against Batista forces. During the war Fidel Castro was taken as a prisoner numerous times and left his brother Raul and Guevara in charge. While in charge, Guevara tried many times to free Castro all in failure but he also led many campaigns in an attempt to gain some ground and most of these campaigns were successful. When Castro took power in 1959, Guevara became in charge of La Cabana Fortress prison. []

H is for Hate There were many factors involved in the attempted and sucessful overthrow of the government, but one of the main ones was hate. When Batista took power, he quickly established himself as a ruthless dictator. During this great "depression" there were many people that sought to overthrow the government including Fidel Castro. All throughout the revolution Fidel Castro's main driving force was the hate of the dictator Batista and the threat that he opposed to not only himself but also to all those around him including his family. It is possible that this hate is what kept Fidel going through his many imprisonments and other hardships. []

I is for Injustice There were several instances of injustice that occurred as soon as Batista came to power including the suicide of the other candidate in the race which happened because he could not keep a promise and was threatened by some men that worked for Batista. Fidel fought against these events because while he was imprisoned he endured these punishments and did not want anyone else to be victims of these. Fidel was eventually successful but at a great cost to his side of the war becase he had lost many men during the times he was in prison. Also his character changed over time from being against such acts of brutality to being for them. This can be seen in Cuba today through the daily violation of human rights that occures many times in a single day under this man's dictatorship. []

J is for Juan Almeida Bosque Almeida returned to Cuba with the Castro brothers and Che Guevara on the Granma expedition, and was one of just 16 who survived the initial landing, during which Cuban government forces killed most of the rebels. During the battle, Almeida shouted "No one here gives up!" to Guevara, which would become a long-lived slogan of the Cuban revolution. Almeida was also reputed to be a good marksman. Following the landing, Almeida continued to fight Batista's government forces in the guerilla war in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. []

K is for Killing There were thousands of deaths in this war. In the attack on the barracks alone of the 150 attackers 3/4 of them were either killed or imprisoned. Then as the war progressed on there were thousands that also died. During one of the many campaigns the revolutionaries were trekking through the swamp and ended up being betrayed by their guide and were nearly all slaughtered.

L is for Life Another reason that this war started was that Batista had no appreciation for others. He did not care that he was a very cruel and sometimes even got joy out of bringing people pain. Fidel, at this time, cared a great deal about others and when his inspiration died (the other candidate in the race for president) he did not believe it was actually suicide but that it was Batista's men that kille him. As the war went on his character changed as more and more of Batista's men were brought to justice, when the more appropriate word would be vengeance. Today you can not tell that Fidel was actually a caring man and that he valued human life because today he is a cruel dictator. []

M is for Minister Castro became the Prime Minister of Cuba.February and had about 550 of Batista’s associates executed. []