MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuba celebrates 50 years of revolution

Cuban President Fidel Castro returned to Moncada Barracks in Santiago on Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of the attack that set in motion the revolution that brought him to power in 1959.

Everything was at the ready in Santiago for the ceremony Castro is scheduled to preside over in the patio of the former barracks, now a school for 2,525 students. More than 10,000 special guests are expected.

Santiago, whose half a million residents make it Cuba's second largest city, took a break from its annual Carnaval celebrations to welcome Castro.

Though Carnaval celebrations traditionally preceded Lent in Cuba, as in most of the world, the Revolutionary government moved them from late winter to July so they would not interfere with the sugar harvest and precisely to have them coincide with Moncada celebrations.

Cuban flags and banners in black and red, the colors of Castro's 26th of July Movement, decorated streets and balconies to mark the 50th anniversary of the onset of the revolution.

The watchdog Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) are preparing to place TV sets out on the streets to enable thousands of people to watch Castro's Moncada address live.

Security was tight to ensure that the event will go on smoothly and that the special guests, most of them Cuban Communist Party and government officials, CDR chiefs, members of international brigades and "distinguished international figures," are well cared for.

Saturday evening, Castro is scheduled to commemorate the foiled July 26, 1953, attack on Moncada, his first action against dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had overthrown Cuba's democratically-elected government in March 1952 and was himself ousted by the Revolution on Jan. 1, 1959.

Of the more than 100 revolutionaries who took part in the attack. 61 were killed, only six of them in battle. The rest were captured and then shot by Batista's army. Some are said to have been tortured. Twenty-eight of 31 survivors of the attack are in Santiago to mark with Castro the beginning of his movement and to watch members of the Pioneros youth organization re-enact the battle.

Pedro Trigo Lopez, now 75 and retired, was in charge of recruiting men for the attack. "We knew we would be staging an armed attack, but we didn't know where. Fidel did not provide us with details until that very morning, before dawn," . "The plan was good and we had the advantage of surprise, but the Cossack guards suddenly appeared and a shootout ensued," he said. Trigo, whose only brother was killed in the clash, believes that half a century later, Cuba has undergone "extraordinary changes" and that the goals of the revolution have been "amply" fulfilled.

He was reluctant to pass judgment on Moncada survivors who now oppose the Castro regime, such as dissident Gustavo Arcos, who was wounded and lost a brother in the action.

"I believe you can disagree. He risked his life with us, but I can't see someone defending his ideas from inside the U.S. Interests Section. That is not defending a pure ideal; that is being a mercenary," he said to the international press.

Mario Trompeta, a 90-year-old native of Santiago, still remembers the Moncada raid and proudly discusses the achievements of the revolution. "The one who ruled at the time was a 'salao' (degenerate). The situation was untenable and we joined the fight," Trompeta said. "I love my revolution and I want it to continue being my revolution. Fidel gave us a place in society," his wife added.

To Vladimir, who makes a living driving a dilapidated Lada taxicab, the achievements of the revolution don't appear so obvious at this stage.

"There are many good things, as regards health, education, culture, but many people are tired. Many here say they are pro-Fidel, but you would need to check that out," he concluded.