During the Neocolonial Republic, the working class demanded the repair of the Tinguaro plant (after Sergio González), the reopening of the Libertad canned products plant, the payment of the sugar differential and the termination of the workers' dismissals. In these claims they had the support of the student movement of the Arts and Crafts and Commerce schools. The peasants of Banagüises, Neda, La Conchita and Flor de Cuba defended their lands from eviction attempts, especially in that last place where they were led by the Castro Mesa family of communists. With the establishment of the Batista tyranny, the revolutionary struggle was revitalized and the Colombian martyrology grew: the Moncadistas Mario Muñoz, Mario Martínez Ararás, Gerardo Antonio Álvarez Álvarez and Julio Reyes Cairo; the clandestine fighters José Ramón Zulueta Hernández, Gilberto Espiñeira Cabrera, Antonio Rodríguez Álvarez and Guillermo Llabre Romaní; the assailant of the Goicuría headquarters, Jorge Armengol Delgado; and the Spanish peasant and communist leader Gabriel Valiente Martín. The rebel commanders Universo Sánchez Álvarez and Oscar Fernández Mel, and Captain Lázaro Vázquez demonstrated their worth in the Sierra; on the plain the coordinators of the MR-26-7 Máximo Reyes Ramos, Caridad Díaz Suárez (Chilica), Juan Manuel Fernández Duque, Rubén Blanco Almeida and María Teresa González Tejo (Teté), as well as the combatants Roberto García Benítez and Basilia Eloísa Díaz Ordaz (La Guajira), this last widow of the fighters Armelio Ferrás Pellicer, Adoptive Son of Columbus.
On January 1, 1959, when the news of the flight of the tyrant Fulgencio Batista to Santo Domingo (current Dominican Republic) spread, the Colombian revolutionaries occupied the strategic points of the city and proceeded to arrest the war criminals for later prosecution. On day 2 the people joined the revolutionary general strike decreed by the Commander in Chief with the aim of defeating the coup attempts of the US embassy, while receiving the Commanders Camilo Cienfuegos and Ernesto "Che" Guevara with their respective guerrilla columns. On January 7, the city dressed in red and black to receive the Caravan of La Libertad with Fidel in front, an expression of the popular jubilation for the victory achieved and the new times that began.
The revolutionary power began to take shape since January 1959 with the dissolution of the repressive bodies of tyranny and traditional political parties, the creation of the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), the election of the Municipal Commissioners as a new form of government, the operation of the Revolutionary Court of Columbus, initially chaired by rebel Captain Julio Chaviano Fundora, the recovery of assets embezzled by officials and soldiers of the overthrown regime, and the first official steps for the construction of the Doctor Mario Muñoz Monroy teaching general hospital, first built entirely in Cuba from the triumph of the Revolution. The application of measures and laws of popular benefit unleashed the actions of the government of the United States and of the internal counterrevolution, defeated in their actions by the Colombian workers and peasant militias, the Federation of Cuban Women, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Association of Young Rebels (later UJC), the Revolutionary CTC and the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP).
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