The following are remarks by Víctor Dreke at the February 21 public meeting in Trinidad, Cuba, to celebrate the publication of From the Escambray to the Congo: In the Whirlwind of the Cuban Revolution.

Dreke, the author of the new title from Pathfinder Press, joined the struggle against the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s as a high school student. He was a cadre of the July 26 Movement and then the March 13 Revolutionary Directorate and a combatant in the Rebel Army. After the 1959 workers and peasants victory, Dreke commanded the volunteer battalions that defeated the counterrevolutionary bands in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba. He later joined the internationalist column led by Ernesto Che Guevara to aid anti-imperialist forces in the Congo and then commanded the Cuban military mission in Guinea Bissau that aided the national liberation forces there fighting for independence from Portugal. For several decades he has been a representative of the Cuban Revolution throughout Africa, and is currently the director of construction projects in Africa of the Havana-based National Union of Caribbean Construction Enterprises (UNECA).

The Trinidad meeting was one of more than half a dozen such events held across central Cuba in mid-February. Hundreds of people, from high school students to veterans of the revolutionary war, participated in book presentations in Sagua la Grande, Santa Clara, Placetas, Sancti Spíritus, Trinidad, and Manicaragua (see article "Book tour visits six cities in central Cuba" in the April 29 Militant.)

The meetings in central Cuba were hosted by the Communist Party of Cuba, the provincial governments of Villa Clara and Sancti Spíritus, and the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution. The association’s membership is made up of several generations of Cubans who have taken part in revolutionary battles in Cuba and internationalist missions abroad. Among those who accompanied Dreke on the tour and spoke at presentations of the book were Iraida Aguirrechu, the current affairs editor of Editora Política, who organized editorial work on the book in Cuba, and Mary-Alice Waters, the president of Pathfinder Press, editor of From the Escambray to the Congo, and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.

The Trinidad meeting was held at the city’s National Museum of the Lucha Contra Bandidos (the fight against the counterrevolutionary bandits). Museum workers helped to prepare an attractive display in the hallways and the courtyard of the building to publicize the event, using blowups of book covers and a spread of Pathfinder books and pamphlets. In addition to Dreke, the speakers included Waters; Félix Pérez Zúñiga, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba in Trinidad; Aurelio Gutiérrez, a Trinidadian writer and historian; and Aguirrechu, who chaired the meeting.

Also on the platform were Manuel Albolay, the president of the local Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution; museum director Héctor Manuel Vieras; and Golbán Marín Valdivia, known by his nom-de-guerre Wasiri. Marín fought under Dreke’s command both in the Escambray struggle against the U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary bands, and in the 1965 Cuban internationalist mission to the Congo.

The tour followed three presentations of the book in Havana: one, attended by more than 200 people, was a feature event at the February 7–17 Havana International Book Fair; the others were organized February 8 at a UNECA workers assembly of some 70 people, and at a February 17 gathering of more than 100 people in the Nautico neighborhood. Altogether, from the opening of Pathfinder’s stand at the book fair through the nine presentations, some 1,010 copies of From the Escambray to the Congo were distributed and sold in Cuba.

This book is intimately linked to Trinidad. Among other things, the final touches on it were done here in this town. The compañeros in Trinidad recall that a few months ago we were here. And in the midst of our activities we were receiving calls--calls from the publishing house in New York to compañera Iraida in Havana, and from Iraida to Ana [Morales, Dreke’s wife]. They would call me and say: Such-and-such a fact is missing in the book. What does this mean? Who is the Mayaguara Horse? Who is so-and-so? What is the Loma del Puerto? Many questions. And with the "Chief of Staff" at home--Ana--I had to respond; I had no choice.

But I did it with pleasure, and I credit the efforts the compañeros made to publish this book. They managed to ease my reluctance somewhat, because it’s difficult for me to talk about myself.

Two days ago, when we were launching the book in Santa Clara, an older gentleman, the historian of Santa Clara, approached me. He gave me a warm embrace and told me, "Before dying I would like to write your biography. You have to help me." I made a commitment to him. It’s a commitment we’re going to have to fulfill, because it was that compañero’s wish. He is someone who knows a lot, perhaps more than I can remember--he told me two or three things that I didn’t even remember and he did.  
 
From rebel to revolutionary
Today we’re launching this book at a historic place for the Cuban Revolution, and one that is part of my own life as a revolutionary.

In its opening pages, the book takes up how I joined the revolutionary movement. I became involved in Sagua la Grande on March 10, 1952, when Fulgencio Batista carried out his coup d’état. I turned 15 that same day.

But I didn’t become involved as a revolutionary. I went into the streets with the students, shouting, "Down with Batista! Down with the coup!" We threw rocks. Perhaps I said, "Long live the 1940 constitution!" And I may have even said, "Long live Prío!"¹

We were fighting against someone who had carried out a coup against the constitution. One of the few things they taught us in school--although it was meant to tame us--was the respect one was supposed to have for the law and the constitution. They taught us about it from the standpoint of their own interests. They told us the 1940 constitution declared that "all citizens are free" and that "we all enjoy the same rights." And we responded to that.

So when I went into the streets on March 10, 1952, I didn’t do so as a revolutionary, but simply as a young person protesting against what had happened. And if at that time Prío’s army had provided us with arms, perhaps we would have died defending that government instead of the revolution.

So that’s how I became involved. We participated in the underground struggle: in the July 26 Movement and later in the March 13 Revolutionary Directorate. I had to flee Sagua clandestinely. The army found out about us. They took one of our compañeros prisoner. They tortured him, and he talked and gave the names of the members of his revolutionary cell. Of course, he revealed that I was the head of that group. The army set out to capture me.

There was one compañero--Eduardo Oropesa, who lives in Sagua--who managed to escape and reached the house where I was living with my mother; my father had already died. Eduardo told me so-and-so had been arrested, and it appeared that he had talked because they had already grabbed a number of compañeros. I concluded from what he said that practically the entire revolutionary cell had been captured and that they were torturing the compañeros.

At that moment I decided to escape and fled the house on bicycle. I went to the neighborhood where I had been born. The army arrived looking for me but I had already managed to flee. They hid me in various locations. The army sealed off all roads in and out of the city.

The compañeros of the July 26 Movement decided to get me out of Sagua. To do this they snuck me out by putting me inside a cabinet and took me to another location in the city. I mention this because these are the kinds of things people still talk about--the famous cabinet. Today there must about 10,000 people in Sagua who say they helped get me out!  
 
In the revolutionary war
From that point on I had to go underground. I went to Havana and then came back, to the Escambray mountains. When I arrived, there was already a small group of compañeros in the Escambray.

In the camp there were the combatants led by Commander Víctor Bordón Machado, of the July 26 Movement, the movement to which I belonged and which had led me up to the mountains. In addition there was another group of combatants, from the March 13 Revolutionary Directorate, which had opened a guerrilla front called the Second Front of the Escambray.²

There was a division in the Directorate’s Second Front, due to the betrayal by Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, who was expelled from this student organization. But he and his group continued to use the name Second Front of the Escambray. Later the people labeled them the comevacas (the cow-eaters) of the Escambray.³

I say this because sometimes history is not properly explained, so young people do not know the details of what happened. Sometimes it’s said that the Second Front began things in the Escambray, but that’s mistaken. It was the Revolutionary Directorate that began the struggle in the Escambray. And Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo was not the head of the Second Front; he didn’t have an organization of his own. He had been designated by the March 13 leadership to go up to the mountains to prepare for Faure Chomón’s arrival in Cuba in an expedition that landed Feb. 8, 1958. Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo betrayed his organization, the Revolutionary Directorate, and he took the name Second Front.

I wanted to clarify these facts, because later, when we speak about the bandits, it helps explain why the Escambray was chosen by the bandits and CIA to try to make it a counterrevolutionary stronghold. But I’m not trying to explain everything here. If I do that you won’t read the book. What I’m saying now adds to what’s in the book.  
 
Che’s arrival in the Escambray
All of you know about the struggle in the Escambray, about the various guerrilla fronts that existed until the arrival of the forces led by our Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, who came with specific instructions from Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro to unite all the revolutionary forces in the Escambray. All the genuine revolutionaries in Cuba, regardless of the color, the words, or the numbers appearing on their armbands, recognized Fidel Castro as the central leader of the revolution and the armed struggle.

Che’s column arrived after a long march and many difficulties along the way. But some of those who called themselves the Second Front attempted to prevent Che from entering the Escambray. I say "some of them" because in order to be true to history--and we must always be truthful--there were individuals in that organization who continued to act as honest, honorable, and revolutionary persons, and who remain so today. Some are members of our Communist Party today and I know they would give their lives for the Cuban Revolution, at the side of Fidel. Here in Trinidad, especially, I want this to be clear.

On Dec. 1, 1958, the Pedrero Pact was signed by the Directorate and the July 26 Movement. This act took place under heavy bombardment by Batista’s army, which prevented some from reaching Pedrero.

Personally I believe that the first expression of revolutionary unity in Las Villas province--between the Directorate and the July 26 Movement led by Che in the Escambray--actually took place before the Pedrero Pact. Why do I say before? Because on Nov. 22, 1958, combined forces of the March 13 Directorate and the July 26 Movement--one force led by compañero Commander Angel Frías Roblejo, who died after the triumph of the revolution in an accident, and the other led by Mr. Rolando Cubela, who later betrayed the revolution--carried out the first combined attack on the tyranny’s garrison at Caracusey, a place very close to here.

So the Pedrero Pact established in writing the revolutionary unity that became reality with Che’s arrival in the Escambray.

The war unfolded. Other battles took place. And Trinidad was taken on Dec. 28, 1958, led by compañero Faure Chomón. At the same time the attack on Santa Clara was taking place, led by Commander Ernesto Guevara. And finally on Jan. 1, 1959, the tyranny fell and the country was liberated.

At the time, a lot of tall tales and outrageous things were told about the taking of Trinidad and the attitude of the heroic people of that city. I say this to the young people. As the enemies of the revolution attempted to make this region a bastion of the counterrevolution, things that happened were blamed on Trinidad. Every time there was a problem some would speak badly of the people of Trinidad.  
 
Why the Escambray?
After the revolutionary victory, the enemies of the revolution--those who had betrayed it and been expelled by the Directorate, and others who had previously fought with the Directorate, such as the bandit Osvaldo Ramírez--attempted to seize the Escambray as a stronghold of the counterrevolution.

That’s why, when you speak of the history of the revolutionary war and the fight against the bandits in the Escambray, you have to go back to the guerrilla struggle there prior to the arrival of Commander Ernesto Guevara. If you don’t, you’re afraid to face up to history while some of us who were part of it are still alive.

That was the reality. And it’s the answer to the journalists and to everyone who asks us: Why were the bandits able to make their base in the Escambray and not the Sierra Maestra? Because in the Sierra Maestra there was Fidel Castro. Why not in the Third Front? Because the leader there was Juan Almeida. Why not in the Second Eastern Front? Because the leader there was Raúl Castro.⁴

So why the Escambray? Because in the Escambray a deep division took place. In addition to a genuinely revolutionary group, there was a small group--fortunately quite small--who were not revolutionaries, and some of them managed to grab official posts and take advantage of them. The book tells about some of these things, so you can read about them in greater detail.

Why did the counterrevolutionary bandits take up arms in the mountains? Because the Rebel Army had come down from the mountains, having fought for many months after Fidel established the guerrilla fronts, and these people believed they could repeat the same history--that one day they would enter the streets of Havana, with or without beards.

But three things were different. First, Fidel Castro was not Batista, and second, the Rebel Army was not Batista’s army. Thirdly, a revolution can be carried out with the people, but a counterrevolution can never be successfully carried out against the people.

The people have shown this. All the militia members who came from other provinces heroically mobilized to combat the counterrevolutionary bandits. Workers, peasants, and students mobilized, and there are many of you here who took part in that struggle. Here with us are Golbán and other compañeros who mobilized to defend the revolution. They showed then that they were revolutionaries and that Trinidad was not a mafia of bandits.

At the beginning of the fight against the counterrevolutionary bands, in November 1960, compañero Commander Piti Fajardo was killed near here. You all know the story of Piti--a doctor and Rebel Army combatant who was the first head of the struggle against the counterrevolutionary bands. At that time there were already thousands of bandits who moved about in formations of 40, 50, or 100. They believed that "freedom" was fast approaching, that they would soon once again take away our schools, take away our racial equality, take away everything the revolution had achieved.

There were other attacks, including the one explained quite well by compañero Aurelio, the attempted landing by Trujillo’s troops in Trinidad.⁵ The Dominican dictator Trujillo wanted to take this city in order to turn it over to the capitalists again. And the counterrevolutionaries were captured in an operation personally led by our commander-in-chief Fidel, along with Camilo [Cienfuegos], Celia [Sánchez], and other compañeros. In that way the first group of mercenaries that came to drive the revolution from power were defeated.

Then the great cleanup of the Escambray took place, with 50,000 compañeros taking part, and the enemy was defeated before the mercenary invasion on April 17, 1961, at Playa Girón.⁶  
 
‘Proletarian combing operations’
Today a compañero visiting here expressed an opinion about the book’s cover photo, which depicts a combing operation in the Escambray. The compañero, who said he had been part of the struggle against the bandits, saw the cover and said combing operations weren’t done that way. The compañero thought--I don’t know if he’s here or not--that the photo must have been posed.

First, I have to say that he’s partly correct. Combing operations were not supposed to be done like that, with the soldiers practically on top of each other. There were supposed to be five to ten meters separating them.

But who would say it never happened like this, with one on top of another? Sometimes one group advanced faster than another and someone in back could mistakenly shoot someone in front.

[A woman in the audience says: "That’s how they wounded Angelito."]

She says that’s how Angelito was wounded. Yes, and others as well. So this is a photo of an actual combing operation. I don’t honestly know where this picture was taken, or who took this picture, which has surprised many people and is very striking. But it shows what a combing operation is.

This depicts a proletarian combing operation. Do you remember what we called a "proletarian combing operation?" It was when three or four battalions advanced together and the distance between the men was similar to how you’re seated in this hall.

Yes, it wasn’t the "correct" way. But why was it done? Because there were times when the bandits--two, three, or four men--remained hidden on the ground. And we would pass over them time and again without finding them. That’s when we carried out the proletarian combing operations, where the combatants were shoulder to shoulder.

When those combing operations were carried out, almost all of us who held positions of command accompanied our compañeros in those proletarian combing operations.

That’s how Piti Fajardo lost his life and that’s how others of our commanders here nearly died: because they were on the front lines together with the combatants, as our commander-in-chief taught us.⁷ He was the first to comb these mountains, rifle in hand, against the bandits, acting with courage, as Fidel has always done.

The combing operation portrayed in the photo was carried out by an infantry battalion from Oriente. How do we know that? Because the only battalion here armed with FAL rifles was that one, which was led at that time by Captain Manuel "Tito" Herrera, who later became head of the Lucha Contra Bandidos units here.

They came from Oriente to help us. A huge combing operation was carried out--Golbán and the other older compañeros in this room will remember--where we utilized all the Lucha Contra Bandidos battalions from the Escambray, Camagüey, Havana, Oriente, and from all the provinces, on the Topes de Collantes highway. That whole plain and all of those dense mountains were combed to flush out the bandits.

But that combing operation had another purpose too. When the Oriente compañeros arrived, some of them at first had the idea that those who hadn’t participated in the fight in Oriente during the revolutionary war didn’t know how to fight like them. So a certain division between Lucha Contra Bandidos compañeros who had just arrived and those who were already here was arising. We’re talking about 1963 not 1970; the revolutionary victory was still new.

So we said: we’re going to solve this problem. We gathered all the LCB battalions from here and from the other provinces and we launched a combing operation. It was a devastating operation. To carry it out, we chose the leaders who had proven in Las Villas how to fight. We put the Mayaguara Horse in charge of one battalion, and Olaechea in charge of another, and the same with other leaders. Tito Herrera and I were at the head of these five or six battalions.⁸

It was practically impossible to carry out a combing operation in that area, but we did it. And when we did so, we were all brothers, because everyone took the same risks, regardless of where they were from.

This small example helped unite all our forces. Afterward, no one was from Oriente or Las Villas. They were LCBers--which is what old LCB combatants call themselves. They say, "I’m an LCBer." A new identity was created in the armed forces: the LCBers of the armed forces. They came together.

When you students here go to the schools in the countryside and you’re having a hard time, who are your best friends?⁹ Those who are struggling alongside you in the field, those who help you finish the job when you just can’t do it. You’re ready to quit, and they tell you, "Come on, keep going, follow me." Or when you’re on a hike and you’re about to fall, and they grab you and help you up. Those are your best friends. That’s really how the unity of the Lucha Contra Bandidos in the Escambray was created.  
 
Counterrevolutionary murderers
We should also talk about the murders. We intend to publish a book about the fight against the bandits, with the help of other compañeros. Because we don’t want it to be Víctor Dreke’s book, but that of all the compañeros of the Lucha Contra Bandidos.

What’s happened? Unfortunately the most knowledgeable among the LCB troops have written little. Thus there are parts of the fight against the bandits we haven’t talked about. Sometimes we read a book and it mentions the Mayaguara Horse--a hero of this region--or Víctor Dreke or two or three other compañeros, and that’s it.

However the fight against the bandits involved practically the entire population, and here in the Escambray there were a lot of heroes and martyrs of that struggle.  
 
The end of Pedro González’s band
The bandits committed many murders in this area including Conrado Benítez, Manuel Ascunce, Pedro Lantigua.¹⁰ You can read in this book about the crimes of the murderer, Pedro González.

Compañero Golbán’s brother was murdered by Pedro González and his gang. They were watching Golbán and his family, waiting to kill them--he was a militia member, in an LCB unit. When they attacked, he ran out of the house in his birthday suit! Maybe he’ll tell us now, "I grabbed a towel and covered myself," but no, he didn’t have time to put on anything. He had to run just like that. Otherwise, they would have killed him and he wouldn’t be sitting here with us. Afterward Golbán took up arms with the rest in the fight against the bandits.

What happened was similar to the combat of the heroic fighters who defended Polo Viejo and prevented the bandits from taking the militia post.¹¹ Those compañeros are heroes of this revolution, above all of this region, which is now the province of Sancti Spíritus, but then part of the old province of Las Villas.

This bandit murdered countless people--the compañeros of Loma del Puerto, those in the bus that was passing by, the compañeros of the tank unit who died without being able to defend themselves.¹²

One day a bandit belonging to his band was caught, and due to a mix-up it was said that Pedro González had been captured. Later it was discovered that it wasn’t him. So some people declared that the revolutionary forces were lying, that he wasn’t dead. People gave him many different names--"the guy who disappears," "the Tatawí," "the invincible one."¹³ Some people were saying that no one could catch him. They were becoming superstitious, acting as if he had magical powers.

Pedro González had a tactic of attacking a place, abandoning his troops, and escaping alone to save his life. So when we would capture the band, he was the only one missing.

But finally, on a rainy Sunday, he was cornered out there in the Tage lagoon. He died in the encounter.

We decided to bring in his body to Trinidad so people could see he was dead. And we posted a guard to prevent anyone from doing anything to his body. Because we have always respected prisoners, the wounded, and we respect those who die in combat. That’s the respect the revolution shows everyone. But this was necessary, and I take responsibility for that decision. Because if we hadn’t done so, there would still be people saying Pedro González is alive!  
 
A book for the new generation
This was the situation at that time. What’s the situation in Cuba now? Today in Cuba we find ourselves in a great "Battle of Ideas," in which Trinidad is not separate and apart. We feel happy because we see what a great advance has been made in Trinidad and in the whole region from a revolutionary point of view.

It gives us great pleasure to see the Rebel Army fighters, militia members, Lucha Contra Bandidos combatants, literacy brigade veterans, teachers, doctors, all firmly defending the revolution, raising the banner of the courageous people of Trinidad. It confirms that yes, we had to launch this book in Trinidad.

It also pleases us to see here today a lot of young people, students. Everywhere we’ve launched this book, the combatants are almost always there, and this book is for them: to read, study, analyze, and help young people understand its contents.

But it’s also important that this book--like all books--be known to the new generation. So that they learn the historical truth from compañeros who participated in it, and of whom they can ask questions.

In other words, the book is from the Cuban combatants, and for the youth. It’s not Dreke’s book, nor does it belong to the compañeros that prepared it. It’s yours.

Therefore, compañeras and compañeros, I’m grateful to you, to the party, and to the municipal government, for having given us the chance to launch this book here.

Today we are sure that our compañeros’ blood has not been shed in vain. At this moment in the battle of ideas, when we’re fighting to bring back our five heroes who are prisoners of the Empire, we have to keep fighting.¹⁴ And this book is a weapon to fight for the freedom of those compañeros, to reaffirm, together with Fidel, that they will return. The new generation is fighting with us to do whatever is necessary to bring back our five heroes.

In this battle of ideas that is so important today, we’re no longer chasing down bandits--we know they won’t return. And if they did return, we would mobilize and wipe them out once again. We have no doubt about that. The enemy can be sure of it. And we can too.

Who would wipe them out? Those who are 60 or 80 years old? No. We can still do a few things, but we now have trouble climbing the hills. We have confidence in the youth. We know that in each of our combatants a new Lizardo Proenza, a new Mayaguara Horse, a new Olaechea, a new Wasiri will emerge.¹⁵

When we began the struggle against the bandits, we weren’t experts in it. When we began the guerrilla struggle, we had never been guerrillas before. No one is born with that. It’s learned. How is it learned? Not in a school for cadets. Not in the U.S. schools or in any other school. It’s learned in struggle. It’s learned through your heart, when you have right on your side because you are fighting for a cause.

Finally, before the party secretary closes the meeting, I’m going to read one thing. The first launching of this book was February 8 at the place where I work, UNECA. We dedicated that launching to our five compañeros who are prisoners in the United States. We did this for two reasons. First, because we think this is a small contribution to the books they will have to read. And also because Magali Llort, the mother of compañero Fernando [González Llort], works there with me.

The dedication reads as follows:

"Dear heroes of our heroic homeland: I salute you for your firmness and valor. You are worthy representatives of the people of Martí, Maceo, Camilo, Che, and Fidel. I send you this book with all the warmth and respect that you deserve. The old oaks are proud of the new pines. Víctor Dreke."

So here at this book launching we can once more say to our commander-in-chief Fidel: Trinidad stands with you, as always.

¡Patria o muerte!

¡Venceremos!

¹ The 1940 constitution, marked by the legacy of the 1933 revolutionary upsurge that toppled the U.S.-backed Machado dictatorship, provided for land reform and other democratic measures, although these remained a dead letter under successive pro-imperialist regimes. After seizing power Batista abrogated the constitution, and the forces fighting the dictatorship demanded its restitution. President Carlos Prío Socarrás was overthrown by Batista, and was a leader of the bourgeois opposition to the dictatorship. After the 1959 revolutionary victory he left Cuba for the United States.

² The July 26 Movement, under the leadership of Fidel Castro, launched the revolutionary war against the Batista dictatorship; it was made up of the Rebel Army in the mountains and the urban underground in the cities. The March 13 Revolutionary Directorate, formed by José Antonio Echeverría and other university student leaders, organized a guerrilla column in the Escambray mountains in February 1958 led by Faure Chomón.

³ The Second Front of the Escambray was formed at the initiative of the Revolutionary Directorate but, led by adventurist and power-seeking elements, betrayed its political goals and began to terrorize peasants, for which it was expelled in mid-1958. They were derisively known as the «cow eaters» since the only casualties they inflicted were to the peasants' cattle that they rustled, slaughtered, and ate.

⁴ Rebel Army commanders Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida led, respectively, the Second Eastern Front in the Sierra Maestra mountains, near Santiago de Cuba, and the Third Front in the easternmost part of Cuba.

⁵ In August 1959, a plane carrying Cuban and other counterrevolutionaries, organized by the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, was captured after landing at the Trinidad airport.

⁶ From December 1960 through the opening months of 1961, tens of thousands of militia members from throughout Cuba were mobilized in what became known as a «cleanup» operation to wipe out the counterrevolutionary bands.

⁷ Manuel «Piti» Fajardo was the first head of the fight against the bandits. He was killed in combat against counterrevolutionary forces in the Escambray in November 1960.

⁸ Gustavo Castellón, also known by his nom de guerre, the Mayaguara Horse, was a member of the Revolutionary Directorate column in the Escambray during the revolutionary war, and subsequently head of a special LCB unit. Catalino Olaechea served as a lieutenant in the Lucha Contra Bandidos and was a company commander in Che Guevara's column in the Congo.

⁹ "Schools in the countryside" are part of Cuban high school education, in which study is combined with productive agricultural work in the countryside.

¹⁰ Conrado Benítez, a 19-year-old literacy volunteer, was murdered by a counterrevolutionary band in the Escambray in January 1961. Literacy volunteer Manuel Ascunce, 16, and Pedro Lantigua, a peasant he was teaching to read and write, were murdered by counterrevolutionaries in November 1961.

¹¹ In January 1963, a counterrevolutionary band attacked the small village of Polo Viejo, near El Condado in the Escambray. Although the bandits set the town on fire, the revolutionary militias fought off the attackers.

¹² In December 1963, at Loma del Puerto near Trinidad, the Pedro González gang attacked and set fire to a bus carrying paper workers from a nearby factory, killing some of the workers, and then ambushed an army vehicle, murdering its occupants.

¹³ Tatawí is the name of a mystical figure in Cuban folklore that disappears mysteriously and then keeps reappearing.

¹⁴ Five Cuban revolutionaries--Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, and René González--were framed up by a U.S. federal court and convicted in 2001 on charges including «conspiracy to commit espionage» for the Cuban government and, in one case, «conspiracy to commit murder.» They were given sentences ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment. Their actual «crime» was infiltrating counterrevolutionary groups that, with Washington's knowledge and complicity, have been responsible for countless violent attacks on Cuba.

¹⁵ Lizardo Proenza, a Rebel Army fighter during the revolutionary war, was head of an LCB unit in Matanzas, and was in charge of all LCB operations in 1965.  
 
 
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