In 1953 Fidel Castro, a lawyer by trade, led an assault on the Moncada
\nBarracks in Santiago, Cuba. His unit consisted of slightly over one
\nhundred men. There was not one heavy weapon among them, in fact Castro’s
\npersonal weapon, can you believe it, was a WW One vintage Luger pistol.
\nMoncada was more than a barracks, it was a fortress and on top of that
\nit was a Regular Army Regimental Headquarters.
\nI don’t know about you, but that tells me something.
\nAs luck would have it, ha,ha, he failed.
\nAt his trial he said a few things I thought you might like to hear.
\nHe said, “I bring in my heart the doctrines of Marti and in my mind
\nthe noble ideas of all men who have defended the freedom of the people”.
\nHe said, “we have incited a rebellion against a single illegitimate
\npower which has usurped and concentrated in its hands the legislative
\nand executive powers of the nation”. He said, “I know that I shall be
\nsilenced for many years. I know they will try to conceal the truth by
\nevery possible means. I know that there will be a conspiracy to force
\nme into oblivion. But my voice will never be drowned; for it gathers
\nstrength within my breast when I feel most alone, and it will give
\nmy heart all the warmth that cowardly souls deny me”.
\nHe said, “the six hundred thousand Cubans who are out of work who
\nwant to earn their daily bread honestly—the five hundred thousand
\nfarm workers who live in miserable huts, who work four months and go
\nhungry the rest of the year—the four hundred thousand industrial
\nworkers and laborers whose retirement funds have been stolen—
\nthe one hundred thousand small farmers who live and die working land
\nthat is not theirs, contemplating it as Moses did the promised land,
\nonly to die before owning it—the thirty thousand self-sacrificing
\nand devoted teachers and professors who are so badly treated and
\npoorly paid—the twenty thousand debt-ridden small merchants, ruined
\nby economic crises—the ten thousand young professionals[who]
\nleave the schools with their degrees, only to find themselves in
\na dead alley—To these people, whose road of anguish is paved with
\ndeceit and false promises, we are going to say, ‘Here you are,
\nnow fight with all your might so that you may be free and happy,'”
\n“As for me, I know that jail will be as hard as it has ever been
\nfor anyone, filled with threats, with vileness, and cowardly brutality;
\nbut I do not fear this, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable
\ntyrant who snuffed out the life of seventy brothers of mine.
\nCondemn me, it does not matter.
\nHistory will absolve me.” Fidel Castro.<\/p>\n
I suggest the last statement could easily be considered the understatement
\nof the Century, and by the way Fidel Castro returned from exile three
\nyears later at the head of a band of less than one hundred men.
\nThey faced the entire Cuban Army equipped with the latest American
\nweaponry. I don’t know about you, but that tells me something.
\nAs luck would have it, ha,ha, he succeeded.
\nEverything above has been researched and quoted from author Tad Szulc’s
\nexcellent treatise “Fidel”. Publishers William Morrow and Company.
\nVenceremos, Islander.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1953 Fidel Castro, a lawyer by trade, led an assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago, Cuba. His unit consisted of slightly over one hundred men. There was not one heavy weapon among them, in fact Castro’s personal weapon, can you believe it, was a WW One vintage Luger pistol. Moncada was more than … Continue reading “On Castro”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-515","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":516,"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/515\/revisions\/516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewalrussaid.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}