Editing Fidel Castro (section)

===Guerrilla war: 1956–1959===
{{Main|Landing of the Granma|Operation Verano|Triumph of the Revolution}}
[[File:2012-02-Sierra Maestra Turquino Nationalpark Kuba 01 anagoria.JPG|thumb|right|The thickly forested mountain range of the [[Sierra Maestra]], from where Castro and his revolutionaries led guerrilla attacks against Batista's forces for two years. Castro biographer [[Robert E. Quirk]] noted that there was "no better place to hide" in all the island.<ref>{{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=126}}.</ref>]]
The ''Granma'' ran aground in a [[mangrove swamp]] at Playa Las Coloradas, close to [[Los Cayuelos]], on 2 December 1956. Fleeing inland, its crew headed for the forested mountain range of Oriente's Sierra Maestra, being repeatedly attacked by Batista's troops.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=135–136}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=122–125}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=114–115}}.</ref> Upon arrival, Castro discovered that only 19 rebels had made it to their destination, the rest having been killed or captured.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=125–126}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=114–117}}.</ref> Setting up an [[military camp|encampment]], the survivors included the Castros, Che Guevara, and [[Camilo Cienfuegos]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=137}}.</ref> They began launching raids on small army posts to obtain weaponry, and in January 1957 they overran the outpost at La Plata, treating any soldiers that they wounded but executing Chicho Osorio, the local ''mayoral'' (land company overseer), who was despised by the local peasants and who boasted of killing one of Castro's rebels.<ref>{{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=116–117}}.</ref> Osorio's execution aided the rebels in gaining the trust of locals, although they largely remained unenthusiastic and suspicious of the revolutionaries.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=139}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=127}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=118–119}}.</ref> As trust grew, some locals joined the rebels, although most new recruits came from urban areas.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=114}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=129}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=114}}.</ref> With volunteers boosting the rebel forces to over 200, in July 1957 Castro divided his army into three columns, commanded by himself, his brother, and Guevara.<ref>{{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=122}}.</ref> The MR-26-7 members operating in urban areas continued agitation, sending supplies to Castro, and on 16 February 1957, he met with other senior members to discuss tactics; here he met [[Celia Sánchez]], who would become a close friend.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=138}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=130}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=119}}.</ref>

[[File:Sierra Maestra -mapa rev cubana-.png|thumb|left|upright=1.4|Map showing key locations in the Sierra Maestra during the 1958 stage of the [[Cuban Revolution]]]]
Across Cuba, anti-Batista groups carried out bombings and sabotage; police responded with mass arrests, torture, and extrajudicial executions.<ref name="Killings"/> In March 1957, the DRE launched a failed attack on the presidential palace, during which Antonio was shot dead.<ref name="Killings">{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=142–143}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=128, 134–136}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=121–122}}.</ref> Batista's government often resorted to brutal methods to keep Cuba's cities under control. In the Sierra Maestra mountains, Castro was joined by [[Frank Sturgis]] who offered to train Castro's troops in guerrilla warfare. Castro accepted the offer, but he also had an immediate need for guns and ammunition, so Sturgis became a gunrunner. Sturgis purchased boatloads of weapons and ammunition from [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) weapons expert Samuel Cummings' International Armament Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia. Sturgis opened a training camp in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where he taught Che Guevara and other 26 July Movement rebel soldiers guerrilla warfare.<ref>{{harvnb|Hunt|Risch|2009|p=35}}.</ref> Frank País was also killed, leaving Castro the MR-26-7's unchallenged leader.<ref>{{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=145, 148}}.</ref> Although Guevara and Raúl were well known for their Marxist–Leninist views, Castro hid his, hoping to gain the support of less radical revolutionaries.<ref name="Hiding"/> In 1957 he met with leading members of the ''Partido Ortodoxo'', [[Raúl Chibás]] and [[Felipe Pazos]], authoring the Sierra Maestra Manifesto, in which they demanded that a provisional civilian government be set up to implement moderate agrarian reform, industrialization, and a literacy campaign before holding multiparty elections.<ref name="Hiding">{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=148–150}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=141–143}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=122–123}}. The text of the Sierra Maestra Manifesto can be found online at {{cite web |url=http://www.chibas.org/raul_chibas_manifiesto.php |title=Raul Antonio Chibás: Manifiesto Sierra Maestra |publisher=Chibas.org |access-date=9 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117013342/http://www.chibas.org/raul_chibas_manifiesto.php |archive-date=17 January 2013 }}</ref> As Cuba's press was censored, Castro contacted foreign media to spread his message; he became a celebrity after being interviewed by [[Herbert Matthews]], a journalist from ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=140–142}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=131–134}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=120}}.</ref> Reporters from [[CBS]] and ''[[Paris Match]]'' soon followed.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=143}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=159}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=127–128}}.</ref>

[[File:Luis Korda 02.jpg|thumb|Castro (right) with fellow revolutionary [[Camilo Cienfuegos]] entering Havana on 8 January 1959]]
Castro's guerrillas increased their attacks on military outposts, forcing the government to withdraw from the Sierra Maestra region, and by spring 1958, the rebels controlled a hospital, schools, a printing press, slaughterhouse, land-mine factory and a cigar-making factory.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=155}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=122, 129}}.</ref> By 1958, Batista was under increasing pressure, a result of his military failures coupled with increasing domestic and foreign criticism surrounding his administration's press censorship, torture, and extrajudicial executions.<ref name="Batista'sFail"/> Influenced by anti-Batista sentiment among their citizens, the US government ceased supplying him with weaponry.<ref name="Batista'sFail">{{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=129–130, 134}}.</ref> The opposition called a [[general strike]], accompanied by armed attacks from the MR-26-7. Beginning on 9 April, it received strong support in central and eastern Cuba, but little elsewhere.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=152–154}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=130–131}}.</ref>

Batista responded with an all-out-attack, [[Operation Verano]], in which the army aerially bombarded forested areas and villages suspected of aiding the militants, while 10,000 soldiers commanded by General [[Eulogio Cantillo]] surrounded the Sierra Maestra, driving north to the rebel encampments.<ref name="Verano"/> Despite their numerical and technological superiority, the army had no experience with guerrilla warfare, and Castro halted their offensive using land mines and ambushes.<ref name="Verano">{{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=181–183}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=131–133}}.</ref> Many of Batista's soldiers defected to Castro's rebels, who also benefited from local popular support.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=158}}.</ref> In the summer, the MR-26-7 went on the offensive, pushing the army out of the mountains, with Castro using his columns in a pincer movement to surround the main army concentration in Santiago. By November, Castro's forces controlled most of Oriente and Las Villas, and divided Cuba in two by closing major roads and rail lines, severely disadvantaging Batista.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=158}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=194–196}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=135}}.</ref>

The US instructed Cantillo to oust Batista due to fears in Washington that Castro was a socialist,<ref name="WarCriminal"/> which were exacerbated by the association between nationalist and communist movements in Latin America and the links between the Cold War and decolonization.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pettinà |first1=Vanni |date=26 August 2010 |title=The shadows of Cold War over Latin America: the US reaction to Fidel Castro's nationalism, 1956–59 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682741003686115 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=317–339 |doi=10.1080/14682741003686115 |s2cid=153870795 |access-date=12 February 2023 |archive-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213064020/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682741003686115 |url-status=live  | issn=1468-2745}}</ref> By this time the great majority of Cuban people had turned against the Batista regime. Ambassador to Cuba, E. T. Smith, who felt the whole CIA mission had become too close to the MR-26-7 movement,<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/105062/setting-the-scapegoat-who-will-be-blamed-cuba|title=Setting Up the Scapegoat Who Will Be Blamed for Cuba?|first=Gilbert A.|last=Harrison|date=13 March 1961|access-date=4 March 2019|magazine=The New Republic|archive-date=22 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822045939/https://newrepublic.com/article/105062/setting-the-scapegoat-who-will-be-blamed-cuba|url-status=live}}</ref> personally went to Batista and informed him that the US would no longer support him and felt he no longer could control the situation in Cuba. General Cantillo secretly agreed to a ceasefire with Castro, promising that Batista would be tried as a [[war criminal]];<ref name="WarCriminal">{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=158–159}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=196, 202–207}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=136–137}}.</ref> however, Batista was warned, and fled into exile with over {{US$|300&nbsp;million}} on 31 December 1958.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=158–159}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|pp=203, 207–208}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=137}}.</ref> Cantillo entered Havana's [[Museum of the Revolution (Cuba)|Presidential Palace]], proclaimed the [[People's Supreme Court of Cuba|Supreme Court]] judge [[Carlos Piedra]] to be president, and began appointing the new government.<ref>{{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=212}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=137}}.</ref> Furious, Castro ended the ceasefire,<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=160}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=211}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=137}}.</ref> and ordered Cantillo's arrest by sympathetic figures in the army.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|p=160}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=212}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|p=137}}.</ref> Accompanying celebrations at news of Batista's downfall on 1 January 1959, Castro ordered the MR-26-7 to prevent widespread looting and vandalism.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=161–162}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=211}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=137–138}}.</ref> Cienfuegos and Guevara led their columns into Havana on 2 January, while Castro entered Santiago and gave a speech invoking the wars of independence.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=142–143}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=214}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=138–139}}.</ref> Heading toward Havana, he greeted cheering crowds at every town, giving press conferences and interviews.<ref>{{harvnb|Bourne|1986|pp=162–163}}; {{harvnb|Quirk|1993|p=219}}; {{harvnb|Coltman|2003|pp=140–141}}.</ref> Castro reached Havana on 9 January 1959.<ref>{{harvnb|Balfour|1995|p=58}}.</ref>