Around mid-1955 student protests and numerous strikes in the banking, tobacco, sugar, port and other workers’ sectors of the Cienfuegos region followed. Fulgencio Batista’s economic policy increases the dissatisfaction of the population. There were times when the revolutionary movement reached a unique strength and many of the most radical opponents of Cienfuegos, Palmira, Cruces, Lajas, Cartagena, Abreus, Rodas and other towns in the center south of the former Las Villas province had joined the ranks of the secret insurgent organizations against the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar. Soon some found out in various ways about the constitution in the city of Havana of the National Directorate of the July 26 Revolutionary Movement, headed by Fidel Castro Ruz. An important role was played by Faustino Pérez and Armando Hart, two young professionals with outstanding participation in the frustrated uprising involving military sectors led by Professor Rafael García Bárcenas’ MNR.
The rapprochement with the revolutionaries of Cienfuegos occurs with the arrival of members of the M-26-7 and Moncada fighters, Abelardo Crespo Arias and Gustavo Arcos Bergnes, in the former province of Las Villas. After a very short time, the Provincial Directorate was established in the city of Santa Clara with Arcos Bergnes as coordinator. They immediately work to establish the Fidelista organization in the vast area surrounding the port city on Jagua Bay. Between late June and October 1955, the 26th of July Movement was formed under the strict conditions of the clandestine movement in Cruces, Camarones, Palmira and other communities in south-central Villareño.
In the important city of Cienfuegos, the constitution of the M-26-7 takes a little longer and requires the patient work of joining forces and reaching the necessary consensus of Arcos Bergnes, Crespo Arias, Ifraín “Cheché” Alfonso Liriano, who were indistinctly interviewed with the leader of Joven Cuba and the MNR Rogelio Bolufé Lozano, the orthodox youth leader Jorge Liriano and the also activists of the orthodoxy Rodrigo López (lawyer), Germán González Longoria (doctor) and Andrés Díaz (doctor and owner of a clinic). In the sports club of the noble district of Punta Gorda, Gustavo Arcos meets uncompromisingly with all those followers of the orthodox movement.
Days later, in early November, Jorge Liriano received a visit from Ifraín Alfonso and Santiago Riera, leaders of the Villa Clara fidelista. Together they decided to contact prominent orthodox militant Rigoberto García Flores, owner of a pharmacy on San Fernando Street, corner of Cuartel. Months earlier, this pharmacist had shared with Rafael Marín, Abelardo Crespo and Gustavo Arcos the need to overthrow the bloodthirsty dictator Batista by armed means. Without much preamble, “Cheché” and Riera García Flores suggested joining the M-26-7 and after he agreed, they asked him to lead the secret organization in the Pearl of the South. Shortly thereafter, provincial leaders Quintín Pino Machado and Guillermo Rodríguez Pozo visited him to finalize the details of the clandestine work before convening the meeting to establish the organization’s leadership.
At the end of November 1955, the 26th of July Revolutionary Movement was founded in Cienfuegos under the leadership of Rigoberto García Flores in the house next to his pharmacy on Calle San Fernando. Gustavo Arcos and the medical traveler Silvio Pozo took part in this first meeting as representatives of the provincial government of “26”; dr Germán González, García Flores, Jorge Liriano; the railroad worker Eduardo Lopez Briñas; the clerk Gregorio García and the pharmacy messenger Luis Pérez Lozano. The Cienfuegos revolutionaries appointed Rigoberto García as coordinator and Jorge Liriano as head of the youth brigades. In a very short time, the ranks of M-26-7s grew in Cienfuegos and their combat operations would prove the validity of Fidel’s strategy.