The Escambray rebellion was a six-year conflict in the Escambray Mountains during which several insurgent groups fought against the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro. The rebellion was called the War Against the Bandits or the Struggle Against the Bandits by the Cuban government. The rebels were a mix of former Batista soldiers, local farmers, and leftist ex-guerrillas who had fought alongside Castro against Batista during the Cuban Revolution. The end result was the elimination of all insurgents by Cuban government forces in 1965.
Beginning
The uprising began almost immediately after the success of the Cuban Revolution in 1959. It was led by former anti-Batista revolutionaries, who rejected the Castro coup,and the ensuing close ties to the Soviet Union and local peasants, who were disenchanted by the communist government's expropriation of their farmlands. The uprising was also secretly backed by the CIA and the Eisenhower administration because of Castro's ties with the Soviet Union. The insurgent guajiro rural farmers were aided by some former Batista forces but were led mostly by former Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil rebels, such as the anticommunists Osvaldo Ramirez and Comandante William Alexander Morgan, both of whom had fought Batista's casquitos in the same area only a few years before. Ramirez and Morgan were viewed by the United States as potential pro-democracy options for Cuba and sent CIA-trained Cuban exiles to promote and spread word of them being an alternative to Castro.
Insurgency
The CIA provided some aid to the insurgents but withdrew all support after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, ensuring their ultimate defeat. Some of the failures could be attributed to Castro’s "roll up" of CIA operatives in Cuba. After the Bay of Pigs failure, Osvaldo Ramirez returned to the Escambray Mountains and declined an offer by Castro's emissary, Comandante Faure Chomón, to surrender. According to Miguel Faria, Chomón had been Ramirez's chief in the Revolutionary Directorate in the Escambray during the guerrilla war against Batista. The main tactic of the Cuban government was to deploy thousands of troops against small groups of rebels, forming progressively-constricting rings of encirclement. The communist leaders that Castro sent to clear the Escambray Mountains were ordered to exterminate the rebels. They were to "comb the brush elbow to elbow" until they had completely cleared the hills of anticommunist rebels. The leaders of the insurgent forces Lucha contra Bandidos were Commandantes Raul Menendez Tomassevich, a founding member of the Cuban Communist Party and Lizardo Proenza.
Defeat
Both their smaller numbers and the lack of outside assistance, particularly supplies, eventually led to the rebels' defeat. The outnumbered anticommunist guerrillas often fought to the death. Cuban forces used sweeps by long columns of militia, which cost the government substantial losses but ultimately won the war. The Spanish-Soviet advisor Francisco Ciutat de Miguel, who was also present at the Bay of Pigs Invasion, played a major role in the pacification operation. Castro employed overwhelming force, at times sending in as many as 250,000 men, almost all of whom were militia. The insurgency was eventually crushed by the Castros' use of their vastly-superior numbers. Some of the insurgents ultimately surrendered but were immediately executed by firing squad. Only a handful managed to escape.
Legacy
The War Against the Bandits actually lasted longer and involved more soldiers than had the previous struggle against Batista's forces. The Cuban government combat leader Víctor Dreke gave a pro-Castro viewpoint in his 2002 book From el Escambray to the Congo, which is notable for its virulent condemnation of former comrades from the war against Batista. However, Dreke also describes the tactics and mindset of the Cuban government forces and its ruthless use of force and no-prisoners attitude. Raúl Castro claimed in a speech in 1970 that the rebellion killed 500 members of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. The death toll of the rebels and others involved in the rebellion is unknown. Estimates for total combatant deaths range from 1,000 to 7,000. Norberto Fuentes, a close friend of Fidel Castro who had privileged knowledge of the Cúuban state security apparatus, gave the figures of 3,478 killed and 2,099 wounded for Cubans fighting in the pro-government National Revolutionary Militia, and his figures generally accepted as accurate. Evelio Duque, one of the rebel commanders, claimed in a June 1965 speech that the rebels had lost 1,200 killed and 5,000 imprisoned. Jose Suarez Amador put rebel deaths at 2,005.
