Attack on the Moncada Barracks

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Attack on the Moncada Barracks
Part of the Cuban Revolution
The Moncada Barracks in 2013 after extensive renovation
Date 26 July 1953 Location Santiago de Cuba, Cuba Result Government victory Rebels forced to retreat
Belligerents
Republic of Cuba	Partido Ortodoxo
Commanders and leaders
Alberto del Rio Chaviano	Fidel Castro Abel Santamaría  Lester Rodriguez
Strength
400	136 (additional 24 in Bayamo)
Casualties and losses
19 killed (1 in Bayamo) 30 wounded (2 in Bayamo)	61 killed (10 executed in Bayamo) 57 prosecuted (6 in absentia)

The Moncada Barracks were military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba named after General Guillermo Moncada, a hero of the Cuban War of Independence. On 26 July 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. That day a simultaneous attack was carried out on the Carlos M. de Cespedes Barracks in Bayamo directed by Raúl Martínez Ararás by order of Castro. The attack failed and the surviving revolutionaries were imprisoned. This armed attack is widely accepted as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. The date on which the attack took place, 26 July, was adopted by Castro as the name for his revolutionary movement, Movimiento 26 Julio (abbreviated as M-26-7),^[1] which eventually toppled the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista on 1 January 1959.