Leading Principles of Fidel Castro

1. Focusing , connecting to the proletarian masses . ( combine the strength of masses / populace ) to defeat the dictatorship

2. Wisdom of a group is better than the wisdom of one person ( we need a group of commanders ) .

3. Subordinates must be loyal his commanders ( serve for accomplishing a goal ) .

4. Commanders must be a mirror for those subordinates to follow

5. Everyone ( include commanders ) must self-criticize ( mistakes ) 6. There must be a discipline in the military .

How Fidel Castro understood / connect to the populace

1. Connect to the proletarian masses . 2 . Make a propaganda about the Batista dictatorship 3 . Unify the Socialism ideology / revolution with the populace 4 . Empower the importance of the masses with the revolution . Without masses , there is no leaders .

Effectiveness of your leader . Che Guevara (born June 14, 1928, Argentina 1967, Bolivia), . Theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare. Prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956–59), and later guerrilla leader in South America.. Military advisor of Fidel Castro

Date : December 28, 1958 - January

1, 1959 Location : Santa Clara, Cuba Result : Decisive victory for the 26th of

July Movement.Final defeat of Batista

government.Batista flees Cuba.

The Battle of Santa Clara

The Cuban Revolution leadership (the Castro Brothers, Ché Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and others) .

He sent three small armies into the interior, commanded by Jaime Vega, Camilo Cienfuegos and Ché Guevara.

In December, Guevara and his force moved into position to assault the key strategic city of Santa Clara .

Background

Guevara’s attack looked suicidal. 

Force Disposition :

He was outgunned, out-supplied and outnumbered ten-to-one.

Batista’s men were demoralized while the rebels were fired up

The population of Santa Clara for the most part supported the insurgents. 

Comments :

Guevara and his men were met by some of Batista’s soldiers and one of the tanks .

Some rebels were killed and others wounded.

Federal airplanes strafed the rebels. The soldiers on the train took up positions

on a hill outside of town and began shooting at the rebels as well.

The troops in the barracks did not enter the fight, however, remaining in the military compound.

December 28 ( Starting )

Keeping the large garrison bottled up Neutralizing the armored train (whose soldiers

had shown the most willingness to fight) Getting the civilians of Santa Clara involved. Result : Some rail tracks were destroyed .

Three factors accounts for success

The officers inside the armored train The barracks for protection.

The damage to the rails caused a derailment, and three of the cars overturned.

Ché struck quickly, sending his men to fire on the train and attack it with homemade Molotov cocktails.

The men inside, cooking in the heat, quickly surrendered.

December 29

Bazookas, machine guns, mortars, a 20mm cannon, 600 rifles ammunition

The 350 soldiers and officers on board the train were taken prisoner

Result :

On the December 30, Ché’s men ran into a deadly firefight at the police headquarters. ( In the city , the police was afraid , the populace were tortured for supporting the rebels ) .

On the 31st, the police barracks fell and Ché and his men were in possession of the city itself, although not the military barracks.

January 1, the demoralized garrison surrendered unconditionally.

December 30 – January 1

Ché was fanatically loyal to Fidel Castro and when he arrived in Havana he controlled the best-equipped army in the country

Castro took command without much trouble from the others.

Castro was good at assigning tasks to his subordinates .

Overview :