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The Caribbean Legion Supplying the Sierra Maestra, 1957–1958

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Book cover Cuba in the Caribbean Cold War

Part of the book series: St Antony's Series ((STANTS))

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Abstract

In this chapter, Prados highlights the crucial aid that Fidel Castro and his guerrillas received from the democratic governments of the Circum-Caribbean, namely from Costa Rican president José Figueres and Venezuelan politician Rómulo Betancourt. Focusing on the transnational networks that supplied the Cuban guerrillas, this chapter provides a new perspective of the Cuban Revolution as a flashpoint in a Caribbean Cold War. It shows how the guerrillas enjoyed the international backing of those in the region pushing for increased democratization and against dictatorship.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Julia Sweig, Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 19.

  2. 2.

    Report to CMGE, 21 April 1957, Archivo del Instituto de Historia de Cuba, Havana, Cuba (AHIC hereon), Colección Ejército (CE hereon), 24/2.1/13.9/1-149.

  3. 3.

    Sweig, Inside the Cuban Revolution, 20.

  4. 4.

    Carlos Franqui, Diary of the Cuban Revolution (New York: Viking Press, 1980), 158.

  5. 5.

    Manuel Larrubia to Ayudante General, 26 January 1957, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/5.1/1-148.

  6. 6.

    Ibid., ‘Informe sobre actividades subversivas en el extranjero’, 21 May 1957.

  7. 7.

    Ibid., to Tabernilla, 13 November 1957.

  8. 8.

    Ibid.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., to Ayudante General, 10 February 1957.

  10. 10.

    Ibid., to Tabernilla, 23 December 1957, 24/3.80/1.2/1-332.

  11. 11.

    Alberto García Navarro to Gonzalo Güell, 16 December 1958, Archivo del Ministerio de Exteriores, Havana, Cuba (MINREX hereon), no file number.

  12. 12.

    Larrubia to Tabernilla, 13 November 1957, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/5.1/1-148.

  13. 13.

    ‘Conclusiones a las que he llegado de los informes que se me han suministrado y de mi observación personal’, 26 April 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/5.1/1-148.

  14. 14.

    Larrubia, ‘Informe sobre actividades subversivas’, 13 February 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/5.1/1-148.

  15. 15.

    Estevez to G-3-EME, 4 March 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/8.1/1-130.

  16. 16.

    Huber Matos, Cómo Llegó La Noche (Barcelona: Tusquets Editores, 2002, digital edition), 54.

  17. 17.

    Ibid., 57–58.

  18. 18.

    On Marshall’s role in the Costa Rican Civil War, see Guillermo Villegas Hoffmeister, Frank Marshall: El Último Soldado, available at https://elespiritudel48.org/frank-marshall-el-ultimo-soldado/. Accessed April 20, 2019.

  19. 19.

    Matos, Cómo Llegó la Noche, 63–65.

  20. 20.

    Ibid., 69.

  21. 21.

    ‘Supply of Arms to Cuban Rebels’, 15 May 1958, National Archives, London (NA hereon), FO371/139661.

  22. 22.

    Financial support is mentioned in L. Pérez Coujil, ‘Actividades Insurecionales’, 6 September 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.14/111.5/1-151. The participation of Cuban exiles is mentioned in Larrubia to Ayudante General, 26 January 1957, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/5.1/1-148.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., 10 February 1957.

  24. 24.

    Legat Mexico to FBI Director, 29 November 1957, John F. Kennedy Assassination Records (hereafter JFKAR) 124-10290-10196.

  25. 25.

    Larrubia, ‘Informe sobre la toma de posesión del Honorable Señor Presidente de la República de Nicaragua, y los acontecimientos posteriores’, 8 May 1957, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/5.1/1-148.

  26. 26.

    Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was dictator of Colombia from 1953 until May 1957.

  27. 27.

    Charles Ameringer, The Democratic Left in Exile: The Antidictatorial Struggle in the Caribbean, 1945–1959 (Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press, 1974), 219.

  28. 28.

    Guerra, ‘Informar sobre el trasiego de cubanos asilados en Costa Rica hacia otros países centroamericanos’, 9 May 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/9.1/1-39.

  29. 29.

    Estevez to G-3-EME, 16 April 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/8.1/1-134.

  30. 30.

    Guerra to G-3-EME, ‘Actividades de los Cubanos asilados en Honduras’, 1 May 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/9.1/1-39.

  31. 31.

    Ibid., ‘Informe sobre tráfico de armas’, 5 May 1958.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., ‘Cubanos asilados en Honduras’.

  34. 34.

    ‘Fidel y la expedición de Cayo Confites’, Bohemia, January 2019, available at http://bohemia.cu/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/pag-36-37.pdf. Accessed April 20, 2019.

  35. 35.

    Guerra to G-3-EME, ‘Actividades de los Cubanos asilados en Honduras’.

  36. 36.

    Larrubia, ‘Informe sobre actividades subversivas’.

  37. 37.

    Garcia to Güell, 12 May 1958, MINREX.

  38. 38.

    Harry Kantor, ‘The Development of Acción Democrática de Venezuela’, Journal of Inter-American Studies, 1:2 (1959), 237–255.

  39. 39.

    Untitled and undated report, FUE, CGRE, MEX 85-3; Ameringer, Democratic Left, 139.

  40. 40.

    Judith Ewell, ‘Venezuela Since 1930’, in Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 8, ed. Leslie Bethell, 752–753.

  41. 41.

    Pedro Barrera to Díaz-Tamayo, 16 January 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/2.1/1-78.

  42. 42.

    Ibid., 12 February 1958; Pedro Rodríguez Ávila to Tabernilla, 29 April 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/1.2/1-332; Barrera to Tabernilla, 21 July 1958, AHIC, 24/3.20/2.1/1-78.

  43. 43.

    Jonathan Brown, Cuba’s Revolutionary World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017), 225.

  44. 44.

    CIA, ‘Cuban Political Situation’, 12 March 1958, JFKAR, 104-10177-10068.

  45. 45.

    Estevez to G-3-EME, 12 April 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/8.1/1-104.

  46. 46.

    José Aguiar to G-3-EME, ‘Actividades subversivas en el extranjero’, 20 June 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/12/1.17/1-63; Pérez-Coujil to JEMC, ‘Actividades insurreccionales’, 22 August 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.14/1:1.5/1-151.

  47. 47.

    Brown, Cuba’s Revolutionary World, 226.

  48. 48.

    A.P. Chaumont to Tabernilla, 28 May 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/1.2/1-332.

  49. 49.

    Chaumont to Tabernilla, 22 April 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/1.2/1-332. On the friendship between Castro and Juarbe see Heberto Norman Acosta, La Palabra Empeñada, vol. 1 (Havana: Oficina de Publicaciones del Consejo de Estado, 2005).

  50. 50.

    Pérez-Coujil to JEMC, 5 June 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.14/1:1.5/1-151.

  51. 51.

    Barrera to Tabernilla, ‘Informando sobre actividades subversivas contra el gobierno de Cuba’, 21 July 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/2.1/1-78; Estévez, to G-3-EME, 24 September 1958, AHIC, 24/3.20/8.1/1-134.

  52. 52.

    García to Güell, 3 December 1958, MINREX; Ibid., 16 December 1958.

  53. 53.

    Ibid.

  54. 54.

    ‘Copies of the File Following the Sightings of Russian? Submarines in Costa Rican Waters’, 2 September 1957, NA, FO371/126609.

  55. 55.

    I. Leonard to G-3-EME, 2 May 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/7.1/1-175.

  56. 56.

    Valdivia to G-3-EME, 29 November 1958, ibid.

  57. 57.

    Leonard to G-3-EME, 2 May 1958, ibid.

  58. 58.

    Chaumont to Tabernilla, 19 April 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/1.2/1-332; García to Güell, 12 May 1958, MINREX.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    Pérez-Coujil to JEMC, 5 June 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.14/1:1.5/1-151.

  61. 61.

    Ibid., 22 August 1958.

  62. 62.

    García to Güell, 12 May 1958, MINREX. The same quantity is mentioned again in Chaumont to Tabernilla, 22 April 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/1.2/1-332.

  63. 63.

    Guerra to G-3-EME, ‘Actividades de los cubanos asilados en este país’, 1 October 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/9.1/1-39.

  64. 64.

    García to Güell, 16 December 1958, MINREX.

  65. 65.

    Guillermo Yriarte to Miguel Ángel Ramírez, 14 October 1958, scanned PDF sent to me by Dr. Aaron Moulton.

  66. 66.

    García to Güell, 30 November 1958, MINREX.

  67. 67.

    Ameringer’s, The Caribbean Legion: Patriots, Politicians and Soldiers of Fortune, 1946–1950 (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1995) and The Democratic Left state that the Legion ceased to exist in 1950, as does Piero Gleijeses in his article ‘Juan José Arévalo and the Caribbean Legion’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 21:1 (1989), 135–145.

  68. 68.

    ‘Arms Carried to Cuban Rebels from Costa Rica’, 24 April 1958, NA, FO371/139661.

  69. 69.

    Aguiar, ‘Actividades subversivas en el extranjero’, 29 June 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/12/1.17/1-63.

  70. 70.

    Barrera to Tabernilla, ‘Informando sobre actividades subversivas contra el gobierno de Cuba’, 21 July 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/2.1/1-78.

  71. 71.

    During their time in Mexico, Guevara and Castro would frequent the house of Lucila Velásquez, writer in Humanismo, and flatmate of Hilda Gadea. Acosta, La Palabra Empeñada, vol. 1, 67 and 171.

  72. 72.

    Wife of Puerto Rican nationalist leader Pedro Albizu-Campos, and a close ally of Castro in Mexico.

  73. 73.

    Mentioned in Chapter 1, Guatemalan foreign minister under Árbenz and Caribbean Legion collaborator.

  74. 74.

    Nicaraguan exile, writer and revolutionary; mentioned in Chapter 2.

  75. 75.

    Prestigious Cuban economist and member of the M26/7.

  76. 76.

    In Chapter 2, one of the Mexican PRI politicians that shipped weapons to Cuba.

  77. 77.

    Some numbers of Humanismo are available online http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/revistas_de_migraciones_y_exilios/partes/684930/humanism. Accessed April 20, 2019.

  78. 78.

    Friend of Castro and Prío, who stashed weapons in her Mexico City house for the M26/7, OA and Guatemalan rebels. Mentioned in Chapter 2.

  79. 79.

    Humanismo, 47, 1958.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., 45, 1957, available at http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/revistas_de_migraciones_y_exilios/obra/num-45-septiembre-octubre-1957/. Accessed April 20, 2019.

  81. 81.

    Leslie Boas, ‘The Caribbean Legion’, 2 March 1957, NA, FO371/119802.

  82. 82.

    ‘Entevista: Luis Alberto Monge de nuevo en Combate (Parte I)’, Cambio Político, 20 December 2011, available at https://cambiopolitico.com/entrevista-luis-alberto-monge-de-nuevo-en-combate-parte-i/2884/. Accessed April 20, 2019.

  83. 83.

    ‘Izquierda-Centro-Derecha’, Combate, nº2, May–June 1957. Mentioned in CEPAL’s bibliography of Latin America’s historical evolution: https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/3416/S6900468_es.pdf. Accessed April 20, 2019. Unfortunately, copies of the magazine are hard to come-by nowadays.

  84. 84.

    Tad Szulc, Twilight of the Tyrants (New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1959).

  85. 85.

    Rolando E. Bonachea and Nelson P. Valdés, Revolutionary Struggle: The Selected Works of Fidel Castro, volume 1: 1947–1958 (London: The MIT Press, 1972), 106.

  86. 86.

    ‘Export of Arms’, 11 October 1957, NA, AK1192/1; ‘Arms for Cuba’, 29 November 1957, ibid.

  87. 87.

    Estevez to G-3-EME, 5 August 1958, AHIC, CE, 24/3.20/8.1/1-134.

  88. 88.

    ‘Cuban Venezuelan Relations’, 27 January 1959, NA, FO371/90774.

  89. 89.

    Bonachea and Valdés, Revolutionary Struggle, 111.

  90. 90.

    Barry Carr, ‘Across Seas and Borders: Charting the Webs of Radical Internationalism in the Circum-Caribbean’, in Exile & the Politics of Exclusion in the Americas, eds. Luis Roniger, James N. Green, and Pablo Yankelevich (Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2012), 235.

  91. 91.

    Ameringer, Democratic Left, 263.

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    Nicolás Prados Ortiz de Solórzano

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Prados Ortiz de Solórzano, N. (2020). The Caribbean Legion Supplying the Sierra Maestra, 1957–1958. In: Cuba in the Caribbean Cold War. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46363-2_4

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