Assassination Of Granma Essay

The Cuban government was not ideal for its people at the time, so they decided to initiate a change. Before Castro’s revolution, Cuba’s economy was highly based on tropical fruits, sugar, and tobacco. During this time, the government of Cuba mainly consisted of wealthy land-owning conservatives. Fidel Castro, a strong liberal who thought the Cuban government was corrupt, decided to bring together a band of two-hundred revolutionaries (Carey, Jr. 15). These revolutionaries attacked the Moncada Military barracks on July 26th, 1953 resulting in a failure that earned both Castro and the revolutionaries a ten-year prison sentence. Two years into his sentence, Castro was exiled to Mexico and began to plot another attempt in Mexico City. After many battles with Cuba’s National Army, Castro’s rebels were able to keep Cuba in a state of turmoil while other rebel groups were able to gain control. Through his actions, he was able to gain the support of the Cuban people who thought he was the logical choice for the new leader (Carey, Jr. 15).

In 1950, an opposition movement arose in Cuba. It aimed to overthrow the government which was under the rule of the dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had controlled Cuba since the early 1933’s. The leader of the movement was Fidel Castro. In 1954 Fidel and his brother Raul teamed up

Instead , the people of Cuba started slowly focusing on Fidel Castro, a rebellious leader who strongly opposed Batista, and Lenin, a Russian Communist Revolutionary. Castro traveled to Mexico in 1955, where he met Che Guevarra, who was a very important figure, giving him advice in succesfully defeating Batista.In 1956 Castro returned to Cuba along withhis brother and Che Guevarra . They launched a number of attacks against Batista's forces, however they lost,most of their men being captured. They escaped and hid in the Sierra Maestra Mountain Range, using guerilla war to successfully capture major areas of Cuba, causing Batista to fly to the Dominican Republic in 1959.Lenin, also a strong , rebellious figure in Russia, was exiled prior to the Revolution, focusing his energy on revolutionary politics. He returned to St. Petersburg and began working with other Marxist thinkers. Their ‘work’ attracted some unwanted attention and they were arrested and exiled to Siberia. He returned once more and stepped up, vocalizing his views . His number of supporters soon started increasing , mainly due to the devastating effects the war with Japan and WWI had on Russia’s economy, pushing people of all classes to side with Lenin. The “Bloody Sunday” pushed the Czar to offer several political concessions, most importantly an elected legislative assembly, or Duma. Lenin wasn't pleased, and believed that a

In the 1950’s, tourists visited the island of Cuba for its warm beaches, culture and Spanish colonial architecture. But underneath the surface, was a revolution ready to burst through the Cuban people they just needed the right person to lead them. Cuba at this time was run by a Political Dictator named Fulgencio Batista.

The Cuban Revolution began in 1952 when a former army sergeant named Fulgencio Batista seized power during a contested election. Fulgencio was the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and dictator from 1952 to 1959. Another one of Cuba’s important men is Fidel Castro. Castro is a Cuban politician and revolutionary who governed the Republic of Cuba. Fidel and his partner Che Guevara were both in charge of the Cuban Revolution, and made the isolated Moncada Barracks his target. Castro estimated the trip would take 5 days. However, due to engine problems, him and his men arrived late in broad daylight. On the morning of July 23, 1953, Castro made his move, but he needed weapons, and he got them. 138 men attacked the Moncada at dawn, many were captured.

During the next twenty-five years Fulgencio Batista ruled Cuba with an iron fist. As well as a complete endorsement from the American government. In 1933 Batista deposed the Cuban government in what is known as “The Revolt of the Sergeants”. His coup overthrew the liberal government of Gerardo Machado. Batista took control of the Cuban military, and a new five member presidency was established, each member was decidedly anti-Machado. However, Batista was not a member of the presidency nor did he hold public office during this time.

Fidel Castro and the M-26-7 successfully seized power of Cuba’s government in 1959, after years of fighting. The M-26-7’s nationalist movement was able to knock the corrupt leader, Fulgencio Batista, out of power, and in 1961 Castro deemed the revolution to be officially of a Marxist nature. Throughout his 40-year stay as president, Castro has not allowed his revolution to stall, but rather he has allowed it to progress and adapt as he has seen fit. In relation with Castro’s revolution in Cuba has been another revolution, that of the Cuban women. Castro himself described the changes in women’s public and private lives as "a revolution within a revolution". In a true system of equality, as in the one Castro holds as his ideal, equality

* 1958 May Batista sends an army of 10,000 into the Sierra Maestra to destroy Castro's 300 armed guerrillas. By August, the rebels had defeated the army's advance and captured a huge amount of weaponry.

When Castro and his followers began their mission, Batista's private police and army soon discovered them. The group was then imprisoned in a small island. That did not stop Castro from aiming for his goal. There, he still held meetings, regarding ways of rebelling against Batista. Here was where Castro decided to name his movement, "The Twenty Sixth of July," since that was the first day that Castro and his men went out, in search of their freedom. It was almost like an ascending ladder towards sovereignty.

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was a part of the 26th of July Movement in Cuba. He became a revolutionary leader who inspired many and brought the guerrilla to victory in 1959. He was a part of the eighty-two men who sailed on the Granma from Mexico to Cuba in December of 1956 (Staten 114). The biographical film, Che: Part One directed by Steven Soderbergh, shows the journey of Che and the guerrillas as they attempted to defeat Batista’s military. Che: Part One is not simply just a depiction of Che’s life, but it brings you right into the action of the armed struggle the guerrilla faced. The revolution shaped Che into the leader he became. He started out as a simple doctor who wanted to bring the people of Cuba what they deserved. Che went through changes as the periods of the revolution went on. He grew to be a leader that would bring his people to the victories they achieved. Throughout the portrayal of the revolution, it can be seen how Che changes and adapts based on what situation he is facing and how the movie shows it. The film goes back and forth between the times Che is in Cuba fighting and after he wins the revolution and talks about his experiences.

In March 1952, a Cuban general and politician, Fulgencio Batista, seized power on cuba, proclaimed himself president. Batista canceled the planned presidential elections, and described his new system as "disciplined democracy"; although he gained some popular support, many Cubans saw it as the establishment of a one-man dictatorship. Many opponents of the Batista regime took to armed rebellion in an attempt to oust the government, sparking the Cuban Revolution. One of these groups was the "26th of July Movement" headed by Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz. Consisting of both a civil and a military committee, the former conducted political agitation through an underground newspaper while the latter armed and trained recruits to take violent action against Batista. With Castro as the MR-26-7's head, the organization was based upon a clandestine cell system, with each cell containing ten members, none of whom knew the whereabouts or activities of the other cells. Between December 1956 and 1959, Castro led a guerrilla army against the forces of Batista from his base camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains. The Batista's repression of revolutionaries had earned him widespread unpopularity, and by 1958, his armies were in retreat.

The Cuban revolution was the spark that ignited the flame of communism in Cuba. The developing nation gained independence only as recently as 1898, and was already filled with an atmosphere of distrust and resentment towards the United States. In July of 1953, a revolution began in Cuba between the United States backed President Batista and Fidel Castro. Fidel and his brother Raul Castro lead a series of guerilla warfare battles against the forces of President Batista. “I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba,” stated Fidel Castro. In January of 1959, Fidel Castro became the President of Cuba. With the regime of Fidel Castro, Cuba would fall to communism.

"The imperialists cannot forgive us to have carried out a socialist revolution under the very noses of the Yankees". In this way the Cuban people and the whole world took notice of Cuba's socialism proclaimed by Fidel Castro on April 16th. 1961. A few days later, a United States-sponsored invasion to Bahia de Los Cochinos was totally defeated by the rebel army and the popular militiamen. This crucial moment was the culmination of the social and political process that followed to the overthrow of the dictator Fulgencio Batista on January 1st, 1959, and the triumphant arrival of the rebel army in Havana a week later. The mass support to the political and economic revolutionary measures was accompanied by a spontaneous growth of anti-imperialist

Castro, Guevara and their small army captured a major city in Cuba and forced Batista to

On July 26th, 1953, Fidel Castro led one hundred and twenty nine men and two women in a daring assault against the Moncada army Barracks in Santiago de Cuba to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro’s plan to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista resulted in eight deaths, twelve wounded and more than sixty Cubans were taken prisoner to be tortured and then executed.