The following is from the book, The Cuban Revolution, written by Robert Goldston:
While Castro was consolidating his position in the Sierra Maestra, Batista’s controlled press and radio in Havana were announcing the extermination of the rebel leader and all his men. First it was claimed they had all died on the beach at Belic. Then it was reported they had all been wiped out at the battle of Alegría de Pío. Next it was revealed that their bodies had been discovered scattered along the trails and in the swamps below the mountains. And although few Cubans placed much reliance on their government’s information, few knew for certain that these claims were untrue. It was certainly true that the rebels had suffered disaster — but had they really all been killed? Was Fidel Castro dead and this Twenty-Sixth of July Movement suppressed? All sorts of rumors were coming out of the Sierra Maestra — but the people were uncertain.
It was for this reason that Castro saw his first objective as that of undertaking some action which would prove his continued existence and the continuing determination of his Movement. There were two ways in which this could be accomplished. First, a neutral newsman might somehow be smuggled past the army lines into the Sierra Maestra; second, a successful attack on an army post would certainly crack through Batista’s censorship barrier. Making use of guajiros to carry messages to trusted undercover agents in Santiago and Havana, Castro asked for the newsman. And to accomplish his second objective he prepared to attack the army barracks at the mouth of the La Plata River in the Sierra Maestra.
This attack at La Plata was a terribly risky undertaking. Although a few recruits had made their way to join the rebels, their numbers were still small; they were poorly armed (they had only twenty-three usable weapons, including a sawed-off shotgun), and they had little ammunition. This last was most serious. Unless they were able to capture the army post and replenish their supply of ammunition after the battle from captured stores, they would be in effect disarmed. Castro’s men had to win the battle of La Plata.
On January 15 the little band of rebels, after a long and grueling march, reached a jungle-covered hill above their objective, the half-finished zinc-roofed army barracks standing next to the river where it met the sea. Two passing (and badly frightened) guajiros informed the revels that there were fifteen soldiers stationed there. Furthermore, they passed along the interesting information that one of the most notoriously cruel and corrupt overseers in the region, a certain Chicho Osorio, would soon be passing by.
The rebels hid in the brush, and when Osorio appeared they ordered him to halt in the name of the Guardia Rural. The Guardia Rural was a local militia force in Oriente Province composed of guajiros and plantation foremen — any who either had nothing better to do or enjoyed terrorizing the peasants. It was poorly equipped and generally raggedly clothed. So when Castro’s men announced to Osorio they were “Rurales”, he took one look at them and believed them. Their imposture was also helped by the fact that Osorio was roaring drunk. He boasted of how he had helped kill a Fidelista prisoner not long before — thereby signing his own death warrant. Fidel Castro now appeared and told Osorio that he was an army colonel who was empowered to find out why army posts in the Sierra Maestra displayed such lax discipline. At Castro’s suggestion, the drunken Osorio agreed to lead the rebels to the barracks below to surprise the troops there and prove to them how unprepared and neglectful they were of their duties.
Up and forward with the “Citizens Organized for Liberty through Action.”
Arriba y Adelante con la “Organización de Ciudadanos para la Libertad a través de la Acción.” Siglas en Ingles — “COLA.”
09th. April 2009
Finca Solana
Corozal Town