Defeating the Batista dictatorship was the main objective of the assault. At approximately three o'clock in the afternoon on March 13, 1957, a truck parked in the cul-de-sac that begins where streets 21 and 24 converge, in Vedado. From the neighboring building, two by two, a group of young people descended the stairs and entered the vehicle. Others, led by Carlos Gutiérrez Menoyo and Faure Chomón, headed towards the cars parked in the area. The convoy headed for 21 and after turning onto 26th street, continued on 17.
In a basement located on Calle 19 between B and C, in the same capital neighborhood, the president of the FEU, José Antonio Echeverría, perhaps was thinking about what he had written a few hours before and that today we know as his Political Testament: “ Our commitment to the Cuban people was established in the letter from Mexico, which united the youth in conduct and action […] We believe that the time has come to fulfill it ”. Together with Fructuoso Rodríguez and other combatants, he left the place and by car, he went to Radio Reloj. Pistol in hand, he entered the transmission booth and ordered the announcer to read the parts previously drawn up by the Revolutionary Directorate, which announced the assault on the Presidential Palace. Minutes later his voice was heard throughout Cuba: “People of Cuba… At this time, the dictator Fulgencio Batista has just been executed in a revolutionary way. In their own burrow in the Presidential Palace, the people of Cuba have come to settle their scores ... ”. Meanwhile, the other command arrived at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace. Carlos Gutiérrez got out of his car and with a movement so fast that it confused the post, he neutralized it. At the head of a group, he reached the Hall of Mirrors, but the dictator was not in his office. José Antonio and his companions left Radio Reloj for the University. The President of the FEU wanted to gather the group that was waiting for him at the Casa de Altos Estudios and together with the support group, quartered in a part of the city, whose boss was obviously hesitating, to march towards the Palace. But the car where he was going collided with a patrol car. José Antonio confronted the patrollers. Several shots hit his body and made him fall to the ground. He got up to keep pulling. A blast struck him down. In the Palace, the forces of tyranny reorganized and began to repel the attack. The situation of the revolutionaries became precarious due to the lack of a park and the absence of the programmed support group, which never appeared. Carlos Gutiérrez was mortally wounded. José Machado, Machadito, understood that the assault had failed and assumed the responsibility of ordering a withdrawal. Outside the compound, when he found that his friend Juan Pedro Carbó was lost, he went back in and managed to rescue him. In his Political Testament, José Antonio affirmed: “If we fall, let our blood point the way to freedom. Because, whether or not our action has the success we hope for, the commotion that it will cause will make us move forward on the path of success. But it is the action of the people that will be decisive to achieve it. So it was. Young people from the city and the country joined the insurrection. The Revolutionary Directorate, which José Antonio founded as the armed wing of the FEU, organized guerrillas in the center of the country and with the arrival there of Che and Camilo, they placed themselves under the orders of the Heroic Guerrilla and with his brothers from the Sierra Maestra, they fought Decisive battles like that of Santa Clara. In less than 21 months, the tyranny fell to its head and the people in power began to guide the destinies of Cuba. 64 years after such a heroic feat, young imienses reaffirm their commitment to the Revolution and to the legacy of José Antonio Echeverría. They carry out a thousand battles: they are messengers, doctors, teachers, field workers. Today it is impossible not to fight, to know History, to relive it, to make dreams come true.
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