The din of fierce fighting inside the Presidential Palace surprised residents at midday on March 13, 1957, when a daring action by the Revolutionary Directorate (DR), led by José Antonio Echeverría, attempted to assassinate dictator Fulgencio Batista in his own lair.
At the end of August 1956, José Antonio, on behalf of the Federation of University Students (FEU), signed the Mexico Charter with Fidel Castro, a veritable declaration of war by Cuban youth against the tyranny.
The purpose of the Palace attackers was to unsettle the regime by assassinating the dictator, distribute the garrison's weapons to the people summoned by Radio Reloj, and seize other locations such as the Police Headquarters, other police stations, and barracks until they controlled the capital. Through this action in Havana, the youth joined the fight in support of the guerrillas battling in the Sierra Maestra mountains.
The initial military plan envisioned a 50-man commando unit, led by Carlos Gutiérrez, assaulting the Presidential Palace; another commando unit would carry out the support operation, seizing the buildings surrounding the Palace and positioning machine guns on their rooftops to bombard the dictator's hideout with fire; a third commando unit would take over Radio Reloj to broadcast the news of Batista's death and address the people.
On March 12, the surveillance mounted by the Revolutionary Directorate (DR) confirmed that Batista had returned to the Palace at 6:00 p.m., and it was decided to wait until the following day for the assault. At 11:00 a.m. on the 13th, it was confirmed that he was still in the Palace, and without losing a minute, recounted Faure Chomón, head of operations for the DR, we gave the order to be ready to begin the march on the Palace.
The 50 young men who entered the former Presidential Palace traveled to the building in two cars and a Fast Delivery van, which carried the bulk of the fighters. Once inside, they assumed various missions. Those who fought their way up to the second floor in search of the dictator discovered he had fled via an internal staircase adjacent to his office.
The fighting inside the Palace was fierce, and the garrison put up a strong resistance. Many young men died, and others ran out of ammunition. A decision was then made to retreat and continue the attack with reinforcements, but the expected support never arrived, and the attackers had to try to hide in the city to escape the ensuing pursuit.
At 3:21 p.m. on March 13, 1957, José Antonio arrived at the Radio Reloj studio and handed the announcers several dispatches reporting the attack on the Presidential Palace and an alleged statement issued by officers and enlisted men who had supposedly taken command of the Army after dismissing high-ranking officers of the tyrant Batista.
At the end of this bulletin, one of the announcers announced that the FEU leader would deliver an address to the Cuban people.
Immediately, José Antonio launched into a passionate harangue that still moves Cubans today, in which he announced the fall of the tyrant, something that should have happened according to the plans. The address was cut short as the student leader was repeating his words, when an employee in charge of transmissions took the station off the air. When the student leader was informed that they were off the air, he fired shots at the CMQ master control room as he left.
Intercepted by a police patrol, José Antonio fell in combat against the forces of the dictatorship near the University of Havana.
Fidel Castro described the assault on the Presidential Palace as "a well-organized operation, an act of extraordinary audacity and courage, in which there were also failures and unforeseen circumstances."
Despite not achieving its objective, the action of March 13, 1957, holds great historical significance, as it shook the popular conscience and increased the repudiation of the tyrannical regime. Many fighters from the Revolutionary Defense Forces (DR) later took up arms in the mountains of the former Las Villas province and joined Ernesto "Che" Guevara's invading rebel column.