Castro's Failure Of The Cuban Revolution

When Castro came to power, it was not because he was the strongest leader and the rightful one, but rather the best, or only, option to topple a dictator that had been in power for many years. Castro displayed all the right characteristics that a leader should have, and that appealed to the cuban people, who were desperate for change in their country.

In 1953, the moncada barracks was the first major move made by Fidel Castro and his group of rebels, most of whom came from the Partido Ortodoxo. This attack ultimately failed but it gave Castro the recognition he needed to begin a movement and to show Cuba a viable option to topple the government. In his alleged 2 hour speech at his trial he said “Condemn me. It does not matter. History will
Castro relied heavily on his strongest allies and friends, especially while in the Sierra Maestra as they were the key figures that kept the movement and ideal alive. In particular, Frank Pais and the Llano, whom in the Granma landing of 1956, had started a revolution in Santiago de Cuba that was meant to coordinate with the Granma landing if they hadn’t arrived 2 days late. After the second failed attempt at revolution and the hiding in the Sierra Maestra, he relied on Pais to provide him with arms and food. Towards the end of the Batista regime, when it was becoming more clear that Castro was gaining strength Guevara and Raul Castro, along with Juan Almeida, opened three fronts, with Guevara’s front being the first opened and Almeida opening a front in Santiago, which fidel later on, on November 1958, marched his troops
Batista himself, since the Granma landing had underestimated Castro and had only made his government seem weaker. Batista had allowed press freedom as he felt secure of his regime which allowed for negative press of his government to be released and he had also let Castro out early, thus underestimating his power. Moreover, his government was full of corruption and unemployment had risen by double during his leadership. All of this signs made the cubans want change desperately, and Castro was seen as the best chance of that. Batista had also further claimed that Castro had died in the Granma landing and when the New York times article came out telling the world he was alive it made Batista look foolish and a liar. Additionally, his brutal treatment of the peasants whom he suspected had aligned themselves with Castro, only made more people want to join the 26th July movement. This idea that his regime was ending was further proven when he marched 12,000 troops into Sierra Maestra and failed due to the moral of the troops and not their weaknesses.