The uprising in Santiago de Cuba on November 30, 1956, was orchestrated to support the landing of the Granma yacht, following the receipt of the agreed-upon password via telegram: “Ordered work sold out. Editorial Divulgación,” which indicated the departure of the ship from Tuxpan carrying Fidel Castro and the expeditionaries.
Frank País had informed the leaders of the group that the goals of the operation were to encircle and bombard the Moncada Barracks with mortar fire and to accumulate weapons. To accomplish this, they planned to assault the Maritime Police, the National Police, and raid a hardware store located in Plaza Dolores. The strategy also involved integrating the fighters arriving on the vessel into areas close to the landing site, including Puerto Padre, Guantánamo, Bayamo, and Manzanillo.
The directive for the national uprising reached Santiago de Cuba at 11:00 a.m. on November 27th, directed to Arturo Duque de Estrada, and was also dispatched to the provincial headquarters of the 26th of July Movement in Havana and Las Villas, in addition to the Revolutionary Directorate.
From the early hours of November 30th, a group of youthful revolutionaries exhibited their bravery and determination by taking to the streets of the El Tivolí neighborhood in Santiago de Cuba. There, the olive-green uniform and the red and black armband, emblematic of the 26th of July Movement, were showcased for the first time, and amidst the sound of gunfire, voices could be heard proclaiming: “Long live Free Cuba!”
Their aim was to attract the attention of the army of Fulgencio Batista’s dictatorship and to concentrate the confrontation upon them, thereby easing the arrival of the Granma yacht, which had departed on November 25th with 82 men tasked with initiating the insurrection to liberate Cuba.
Molotov cocktails were thrown at the police station, resulting in the deaths of Pepito Tey, Otto Parellada, and Tony Alomá.
The takeover of the Captaincy of the Port was successful, as the guards were caught off guard, leading to confusion. The weapons discovered became useful supplies for the 26th of July Movement.
Regarding the assault on the Moncada military fortress, the mortar intended to create a breach for the rebels failed at a critical moment, and the operation was unsuccessful, although there were shootings in the surrounding streets.
Fighting also occurred in other eastern regions, and numerous actions, primarily sabotage, were carried out throughout the rest of the country.
Santiago de Cuba transformed into a city where the struggle continued throughout that Saturday, November 30, but on Sunday, the revolutionary command ordered a retreat. Warplanes flew overhead as the tyrannical army sought to eliminate the insurgents, while many residents provided shelter to the assailants, treated the wounded, and warned them of enemy troop movements.
The military was far from anticipating that the uprising in Santiago on that date, seemingly defeated, would mark the beginning of the countdown to the end of the tyranny.
Although the perilous journey across the stormy sea from Mexico on the overloaded yacht made it impossible to arrive on the very day of the uprising, with its arrival on December 2, the prevailing atmosphere of struggle became virtually uncontrollable.
The armed forces fostered the false belief that with the harsh repression of the revolutionary movement in Santiago de Cuba and the assassination and detention of many of the “Granma” expeditionaries, the insurrection had been definitively crushed, unaware that the uprising represented the first act that opened the final stage of armed struggle.