Rebels attack La Plata outpost

Espín worked with Frank País’s underground network during the armed action that challenged Batista in Cuba’s second city.

The expedition landed late at Las Coloradas in difficult mangrove terrain, far from its planned meeting with the urban underground.

Local residents and organizers helped scattered expeditionaries evade government patrols and reach the Sierra Maestra.

Batista’s troops surprised and dispersed the exhausted expeditionaries. Only small groups survived to regroup in the Sierra Maestra.

Fidel and Raúl Castro’s groups met again. Their small surviving nucleus became the foundation of the Rebel Army.

Rebel forces ambushed an army patrol, showing that the Sierra Maestra guerrilla nucleus had survived.

The New York Times correspondent met Castro in the Sierra Maestra, contradicting government claims that the rebel leader was dead.

Publication gave the guerrilla movement international visibility and weakened Batista’s information campaign.

Students attempted to kill Batista and spark a national uprising. The assault failed after fierce fighting in Havana.

José Antonio Echeverría seized the station and announced that Batista had fallen, but the broadcast was cut off before completion.