295. Despatch From the Ambassador in Cuba (Smith) to the Department of State 1
SUBJECT
- Activities Involving Forces of Fidel Castro in Sierra Maestra Mts.
The censorship of all news media in Cuba, combined with the difficulty and clandestine nature of communications with the forces operating in the Sierra Maestra, make it difficult to obtain current and accurate information on activities there. The Government permits only official statements to be published, and endeavors to give the impression that conditions there are quiet, and that such engagements as do occur are small affairs resulting in the capture or killing of several rebels.
The actuality is different. The Embassy has learned from a variety of sources which are considered reliable that Fidel Castro and his armed followers in the Sierra Maestra are now adequately armed with small arms and light machine guns. They lack heavy armament, and have little chance of obtaining it. They have obtained arms by capture in small engagements, by successful raids, and by supply [Page 847] from sympathizers from outside the zone of activities. Some opposition sources maintain that the rebel force is now sufficiently powerful to seize and hold for a time some small city in Oriente Province, not too far from the hills, such as Manzanillo, Bueycito, or Estrada Palma. They insist that an engagement larger than a simple raid or skirmish will take place soon.
Details are not available, but it appears that the rebel forces have not been idle recently. There are persistent reports of a raid on a town to the north of the Sierra Maestra, apparently Bueycito, in the early days of September. The raid is said to have been led by the Argentine physician Guevara, one of the original group which landed with Castro December 2, 1956. There are also reports, considered reliable, of an action on either the 11th or 12th of this month at Ubero, a small port on the south coast west of Santiago. Those reports agree that the Army suffered at least 20 casualties and that rebel losses were small. Cause for the engagement is said to have been the belief of the Castro forces that Senator Rolando Masferrer 2 was in the town. They consider Masferrer a mortal enemy, with reason. However, Embassy sources add that Masferrer had been there, but left the preceding day.
As a further indication that the Army is continuing to have a difficult time in its attempts to capture or destroy the Castro forces, there are reports from various sources, some relayed from our Consulate at Santiago, that at least 10 officers have been killed in recent weeks in engagements in the hills. Logically, this indicates that there were a considerably larger number of casualties among enlisted personnel.
It appears that the Cuban Government has been unable to liquidate the Sierra Maestra rebellion; that there is little possibility that it can do so in the near future, and that the operation will continue to plague Cuban armed forces, with possibly serious effects on their morale.
Counselor of Embassy
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 737.00/9–1657. Confidential. Drafted by John L. Topping, Second Secretary, Counselor, and Political Officer of the Embassy in Habana.↩
- Reference is to one of the leaders of the Radical Union Party which supported Batista. He became prominent as the head of the Movimiento Socialista Revolucionario (Socialist Revolutionary Movement) which supported the government against Castroist opposition in Oriente Province.↩