The newly appointed commander, Raúl Castro Ruz, departed from the Sierra Maestra on March 1, 1958, at the head of his rebel column to fulfill the mission entrusted to him by Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro: to open the Second Eastern Front "Frank País" in the eastern Sierra Cristal.
That year, Fidel, following his strategic vision of expanding the war fronts after defeating the Batista dictatorship's offensive, decided to extend the guerrilla struggle beyond the Sierra Maestra.
To that end, on February 27, 1958, he promoted the then-veteran captains Raúl Castro and Juan Almeida Bosque to commander, tasking them with organizing and leading, respectively, the Second and Third Fronts in the former Oriente province. Raúl assumed command of the new Column 6 "Frank País," while Almeida took command of Column 3 "Santiago de Cuba."
To accomplish this mission, Raúl selected 54 fighters from Column 1 to form Column 6, and they departed from Pata de la Mesa, arriving on March 1, 1958, in San Lorenzo, the historic site where Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the Father of the Nation, fell fighting a Spanish squadron.
There, he planned the perilous crossing of the Central Highway and began the trek across the plains toward the northern part of eastern Cuba, until he reached Piloto del Medio, north of San Luis, on March 11, where he officially proclaimed the opening of the Second Front, which he maintained until the triumph.
The Second Eastern Front, Frank País, controlled a mountainous territory that today corresponds to the province of Guantánamo and parts of the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Holguín, traversed primarily by the Sierra Cristal mountain range. There, Commander Raúl Castro built a model of political, military, and social organization in a guerrilla territory that eventually encompassed 123,000 square kilometers and a population of over half a million inhabitants. From Mayarí to Baracoa, in Guantánamo, Alto Songo, and San Luis, Raúl Castro created Revolutionary Peasant Committees and incorporated the rebel groups already operating there, especially those led by Captain Demetrio Montseny (Villa) and Lieutenants Raúl Menéndez Tomassevich and José Durán (Zapata).
On January 26, Raúl established his command post in Aguacate, Monte Ruz, north of Guantánamo, where he created the first services such as the Armory, Hospital, Rebel Intelligence, Communications, and Supplies.
Later, throughout the vast rebel territory, he created and organized the departments of Justice, Rebel Health, Public Works, Treasury, Propaganda, and Inspection, headed by then-Captains Augusto Martínez, José R. Machado, Oriente Fernández, Jorge Serguera, Manuel Piñero, and Lieutenant René León. The Department of Education was also created, headed by Asela de los Santos, along with the Agrarian Bureau, led by Jorge Serguera, and the Workers' Bureau, headed by Antonio Torres (Ñico). Raúl said, "Now we are like a small revolutionary state within another."
From the beginning, it found significant support among the region's peasantry and the organizations of the 26th of July Revolutionary Movement in Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Mayarí, and other towns in the territory. Vilma Espín Guillois, heroine of the Sierra and the Llanos, played a fundamental role in this effort from June 1958 onward, as a guerrilla fighter and effective coordinator of the clandestine movement in Oriente with the territory of the Front.
In its nine months and 20 days of existence, the Second Eastern Front Frank País, led by Commander Raúl Castro, captured 31 barracks and Rural Guard posts, in addition to seizing some two thousand weapons from the enemy. The capture of Moa airport was followed by the seizure of naval posts, the downing of aircraft, maritime operations, and the capture of soldiers. The idea conceived by Raúl Castro to create a Rebel Air Force was also developed.
This Front organized 20 hospitals and field medical posts, established some 400 schools, and oversaw the construction of hundreds of kilometers of roads and telephone lines. The war tax raised more than two million pesos, which were used to purchase weapons abroad and to sustain the Front.
Important events took place, such as the Congress of Peasants in Arms on September 21 and the Congress of Workers in Arms on December 8. By December 1958, access to the northern part of the former Oriente province was completely controlled by the rebel forces.
In the many battles fought, 243 heroes fell, whose remains now rest in the Mausoleum of the Front, located in the foothills of the Mícara mountain, one kilometer from the site of the Central Command of the Guerrilla Front from August to December 1958. There lie the remains of the heroine of the Republic of Cuba, Vilma Espín.