Fidel Castro enters Havana

Cienfuegos took control of the country’s largest military installation, completing the collapse of Batista’s command in Havana.

Workers kept transport, communications and major workplaces halted until the military succession collapsed and the Rebel Army controlled the capital.

A Santiago speech presented military victory as the start of social reconstruction and insisted on vigilance against elite restoration.

The revolutionary coalition installed Judge Manuel Urrutia as provisional president.

The Eisenhower administration extended diplomatic recognition to Cuba’s revolutionary government.

In a nationally broadcast speech, Castro warned that victory did not mean that every problem had been solved.

A huge Havana rally defended revolutionary trials of officials accused of torture and murder under Batista, amid international criticism.

The mass gathering asserted popular support for the new government while debating revolutionary justice and the crimes of the dictatorship.

On his first foreign visit after victory, Castro thanked Venezuelans for solidarity with the Cuban struggle.

Guevara described the armed movement’s commitments to agrarian reform, sovereignty and transformation beyond a change of rulers.