Escambray rebellion
에스캄브라이 반란
An armed conflict from 1959 to 1965 in Cuba's Escambray Mountains, in which several insurgent groups fought the government led by Fidel Castro. The government's counter-insurgency was called the Struggle Against Bandits (Spanish: Lucha Contra Bandidos, LCB), and it ended in 1965 when government forces eliminated the remaining insurgents.
In depth
Background and character
The Escambray rebellion began almost immediately after the victory of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and lasted until 1965. Its social base was heterogeneous: former soldiers of the Batista regime, local farmers, and turncoat ex-guerrillas who had fought alongside Castro against Batista. Its leadership included an ex-guerrilla who rejected the socialist turn and the close ties with the Soviet Union, while small landowning farmers opposed to the collectivization of farmland played a central role. The insurgent guajiro farmers were aided by some former Batista forces, but were led mostly by veterans of the 13 March Movement (DR), including the anti-communists Osvaldo Ramírez and Comandante William Alexander Morgan, both of whom had fought Batista's forces in the same area. Morgan was executed in 1961.
Outside support and its limits
The United States viewed Ramírez and Morgan as potential pro-democracy options and sent CIA-trained Cuban exiles to promote them as an alternative to Castro. The CIA provided some aid to the insurgents, but withdrew all support after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, which ensured their ultimate defeat. After that failure Osvaldo Ramírez returned to the Escambray Mountains and declined an offer to surrender from Castro's emissary Faure Chomón. The source describes the backing as secret support from the CIA and the Eisenhower administration; that backing is attributed rather than independently verified here.
Government counter-insurgency
The government's main tactic was deploying thousands of troops against small rebel groups in progressively constricting rings of encirclement. The leaders sent to clear the Escambray were ordered to exterminate the rebels ("comb the brush elbow to elbow"). The Lucha Contra Bandidos counter-insurgency was led by Commandantes Raúl Menéndez Tomassevich, a founding member of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Lizardo Proenza. Francisco Ciutat de Miguel, a Spanish-Soviet advisor also present at the Bay of Pigs, played a major role in the pacification operation.
Castro employed overwhelming force, at times sending as many as 250,000 men, almost all militia (including 3,500 of the 4,000 government fatalities). The insurgency was eventually crushed by vastly superior numbers; some insurgents surrendered and were immediately executed by firing squad, and only a handful escaped. The Struggle Against the Bandits lasted longer and involved more soldiers than the earlier struggle against Batista's forces.
Casualties and open questions
Raúl Castro claimed in a 1970 speech that the rebellion killed 500 members of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. The death toll of rebels and others, including civilians and pro-government militia, is unknown, and estimates for total combatant deaths range from 1,000 to 7,000. Jonathan Brown's 2017 article "The bandido counterrevolution in Cuba, 1959-1965" is cited for further study.