Fulgencio BatistaMay 1958
Launches a summer offensive against Castro's guerrillas.
Cuba · Revolution / Revolution of Cuba. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
Launches a summer offensive against Castro's guerrillas.
Commands Batista's summer offensive against Castro's guerrillas.
Cantillo surrounds the mountain range of the Sierra Maestra, and set up roadblocks to prevent supplies from getting to the guerrillas, and attacked from the north to drive the guerrillas down to the south coast
The offensive fails because Cantillo's soldiers fight in unfamiliar terrain (forests and jungles of the Sierra Maestra) and because much of the army was demoralized and unmotivated
Commands Batista's offensive against the Sierra Maestra rebels.
A bad decision was to divide operational control between two Generals, Cantillo and the ineffective (but politically well connected) General Alberto del Rio Chaviano
Shares operational responsibility during Batista's offensive.
Operation Verano suffers a major defeat at La Plata.
Castro's forces escape destruction at Las Mercedes.
By August 8th, Castro's entire army had escaped back into the mountains, Operation Verano had been a failure for the Batista Government
Cantillo signs a secret armistice with the 26th of July movement, ending the Verano offensive
After the defeat of the Batista "ofensiva", Castro's forces began their offensive
A bad decision was to divide operational control between two Generals, Cantillo and the ineffective (but politically well connected) General Alberto del Rio Chaviano
Batista elects to destroy Castro's small army so in May 1958, General Eulogio Cantillo is given the mission of destroying Castro's forces in the Sierra Maestra.
The attitude of Batista changes in the spring of 1958 as Castro started to gain international recognition and he called for a General Strike.
The offensive is designed to crush Fidel Castro's revolutionary army, who had been growing in strength in the area of the Sierra Maestra hills since their arrival in Cuba onboard the Granma yacht in December 1956.
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