In mid-November 1956, members of the July 26th Movement, led by the pharmacist Rigoberto García Flores, carried out actions against the tyranny of Fulgencio Batista. In the public spaces of the city, between November 21 and 28, the high school students carried out various protests, following the guidelines of the youth leaders and members of the M-26-7 Gonzalo Curbelo, Elio Núñez and José Gregorio Martínez of the school Of Trade; Jorge Mena from the Secondary Education Institute; Raúl Dorticós Jiménez from the Applied Arts School and José R. Cueto from the Normal Teachers School. The confiscation of school buildings, particularly the School of Commerce, on November 23 would have particular political resonance. At the same time, members of the M-26-7 Action painted revolutionary slogans at central locations in the city, while a group under the command of Aníbal Velaz and Aldo Margolles carried out the bold action of penetrating the Melilla Armory, located in found the Jesuit College building and stole several weapons that needed repairs.
At that time, plans were well advanced in Mexico to send an armed expedition under the command of Fidel Castro Ruz. Numerous members of the M-26-7 from Cienfuegos had collected donations to finance the preparation of the expeditionary group. Likewise, the dispatch of a former naval officer, Roberto Roque Nuñez, to Mexico was coordinated from Cienfuegos with Melba Hernández and Haydée Santamaría.
When the yacht expedition leaves the port of Tuxpan for Cuba, the headquarters of the July 26 Movement in Cienfuegos plans in advance to support the disembarkation. The secret groups, led by Aldo Margolles Dueñas, Pedro L. Olascoaga and Francisco Escobar, among others, were ordered to remain on the ground to support an important operation. Also the revolutionary navigators Santiago Ríos and Francis of the Sun, heads of the conspiracy core of the southern naval district in Cayo Loco, received this order personally from García Flores, the coordinator of the M-26-7 in Cienfuegos. In the minds of this local chief and other Villareño Territory directors, the idea grew stronger to seize the naval enclave of Cayo Loco and procure the weapons the secret fighters needed to support the plans of Fidel and his followers.
On the night of November 29, Raúl Coll and Miguel Merino called on them to carry out actions in support of the plan, which centered on the disembarkation of the expedition members led by Fidel. The leaders of the action were billeted at the home of Efraín Barrios, on Santa Clara Street between Cid and O’Donell Streets. The coordinator Rigoberto García, supported by Coll and Merino, who brought some weapons with them, decided to implement the plan, which included the occupation of the Radio Tiempo station to exhort the people to support the overthrow of tyranny; take over the National Police and Maritime Police; dominate City Hall and other government agencies; the burning of the premises of the newspapers La Correspondencia and El Comercio; Cut telephone and power lines to later regroup on Jesuit College grounds. However, early in the morning of November 30, the leader of the conspiring sailors announced that it was impossible to complete the mission of taking Cayo Loco, since the tyranny had ordered its troops to be billeted, although the conspirators were unaware that this was because was news from Batista’s secret services on the expedition. Under these circumstances, the leaders of “26 de Julio” decided to continue the plan of action despite the lack of arms, although most were unsuccessful. However, the local press published the result of one of the actions that same afternoon: “The usual passivity of Cienfuegos was changed this morning … as a result of the petrol pumps of two gas station companies being set on fire at the entrance of the Calle de Dolores, the attributing the fact to revolutionary elements…” In fact, the revolutionary group, composed of Aníbal Velaz, Antonio Espino, Gustavo López, Rafael Betancourt and Humberto del Blanco, carried out the sabotage and then marched to the Jesuits, a place that together with the others Provided to members of the garrison was M-26-7 When they arrived on site, Merino, Coll and Margolles and other bosses were waiting for them, given the impossibility of continuing the plan of action due to the lack of weapons and the mobilization of Batista’s repressive forces ordered the demobilization of the revolutionaries, who were concentrated among the Jesuits reported the repressive forces’ attempt to arrest the revolutionaries in this place, which was quickly surrounded and raided in the early hours of the morning.
The participation of the members of the M-26-7 in the actions of support for the expedition organized by Fidel, carried out in Cienfuegos, Palmira, Cruces and other municipalities of Villareño, showed the strength that the revolutionary movement in Cuba had achieved.
*Historian. President of UNEAC in Cienfuegos.