Castro addresses the crowd at Camp Columbia

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.

Castro’s Caravan of Freedom reached the capital after a journey from Santiago marked by mass rallies.

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.

The revolutionary government adopted a Fundamental Law based partly on the 1940 Constitution while concentrating legislative authority in the Council of Ministers.