On March 13, 1957, a group of members of the Revolutionary Directorate, led by José Antonio Echeverría, carried out one of the most impressive actions of the insurrectional struggle: the attack on the Presidential Palace. Its objective: to execute the dictator Fulgencio Batista and simultaneously take over the Radio Reloj radio station to call on the people to rise up against the repressive forces and accelerate the Triumph of the Revolution.
Several factors contributed to the failure of the operation; the reinforcement that never arrived, the numerical and armament superiority of the garrison of the Presidential Palace and the flight of Batista. Carlos Gutiérrez Menoyo, José Antonio Echeverría and a score of combatants were killed in this risky action.
José Antonio Echeverría as president of the University Student Federation (FEU) led the insurrectional struggle from the classrooms of the University of Havana.
In August 1956, the Letter of Mexico was signed, a document in which the July 26th Movement and the Revolutionary Directorate sealed their united commitment to carry out the Revolution with arms in their hands.
According to Faure Chomón Mediavilla (15/01/1929 – 5/12/2019), Commander of the Rebel Army and second in command of that action (recently deceased) “there was the headquarters of the head of the tyranny and from there all the threads of the conduction of the dictatorial power and it was also a military fortress because of its numerous garrison that would provide us with a great quantity of weapons, enough to continue towards other objectives that would turn Havana into a great popular uprising”.
The strict surveillance of the tyrant’s stay in the palatial mansion from a nearby site, the collection and transfer of weapons, and the clandestine quartering of some 50 combatants were part of the plan that merged three objectives: the execution of the dictator in his own lair, the occupation of the Radio Reloj radio station to call for a revolutionary uprising in the capital and the establishment of his headquarters at the University of Havana.
Zero hour arrived. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon two cars and a red truck with the Fast Delivery sign began their journey from a point in the Vedado neighborhood. Nothing called attention to the brave detachment that burst like a torrent of fire through the south entrance of the Palace.
The surprise factor was decisive. Part of the attackers occupied the ground floor and some of them reached Batista’s office, who was able to sneak to the upper floors where the garrison offered tenacious resistance.
The superiority of the soldiers in men and weapons, the high number of casualties among the combatants and the indecisive attitude of those who were to command the support operation were factors that prevented success.
In the meantime. José Antonio and other comrades arrived at the Radio Reloj microphones to address a speech to the Cuban people.
The vibrant voice of the young leader remained unfinished. Minutes later, he fell in unequal combat against a police patrol car next to the walls of the University of Havana.
“If we fall, may our blood point the way to freedom. Because whether or not our action has the success we hope for, the commotion it will cause will move us forward on the path to triumph. But it is the action of the people that will be decisive to achieve it”, José Antonio had sentenced in his Political Testament.
Although the slogan coined by Fidel Castro “Fatherland or Death” was said for the first time in the farewell mourning to the victims of the horrendous crime with the explosions of the battleship La Coubre, it was the guide of José Antonio Hecheverría and his followers in the assault to the Presidential Palace. That is and will always be the slogan of Cubans who want to keep their homeland sovereign and free.