In 1952, a few month before the Presidential elections, the Government of Cuba was overthrown in a military coup led by Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, an ex-member of Cuba's military and Cuba's elected president from 1940 to 1944. During his second term, he led Cuba as a brutal and corrupt dictator.
Soon groups within Cuba began to organize to overthrow Batista. On July 26 1953, a group of men attacked several Cuban army barracks but were repelled. Most were killed or imprisoned. However the 26th of July 1953 is considered the official beginning of the Cuban Revolution, a revolution that would eventually lead to the overthrow of the Batista regime on January 1 1959.
Aviation played an important role during the Cuban revolution from 1956 to 1958 and again during the early days of the new Revolutionary government of Cuba, from 1959 to 1961. Aviation also played a primary role, not only in the different Cuban exiles groups' attempts to undermine and overthrow the young Revolutionary government after January 1959, but also in the CIA's plans when in early 1960, President Eisenhower instructed the CIA to begin planning the overthrow the Cuban government.
The Fuerza Aerea Ejercito de Cuba (FAEC), as the Cuban Air Force was officially called until January 1959, played a fairly important role in combating the rebels during the Cuban Revolution. In 1959, the most important among the rebel groups, the one headed by Fidel Castro, which called itself, the Movimiento 26 de Julio (26th of July Movement, or M-26-7), even created a small air Force of its own, called the Fuerza Aerea Rebelde (FAR). This force was instrumental in seizing or creating landing strips to receive men and supplies from overseas, and at the latter part of the war, to create its own offensive air force. After the rebels took power on Jan 01, 1959, the FAR and the FAEC were merged into the Fuerza Aerea Revolutionaria (FAR). This Air Force played a decisive role in defending the nascent Cuban government from the attempted invasion that took place at Bahia de Cochinos in April 1961.
When the CIA began to organize and train an invasion force in 1960, what was to be later called Brigade 2506, it created an Air Force that the Cuban members of the Brigade baptized the Fuerza Aérea de Liberación (FAL).
Many books and articles have already been published on the subject. A few of them were even written by those very pilots who were protagonists in these events, but no one has ever attempted to write the whole story of Cuban aviation during the revolution and of the early days of the Revolutionary government from a purely aviation perspective.
I have been researching this subject for years, by purchasing and reading every book, article and report I could find that touched this subject and by trying to locate and interview survivors. But these events took place over 50 years ago, and finding protagonists not only capable but also willing to tell their stories has proven much more challenging than I initially thought it would be.
This Blog will attempt to list the major aviation events between 1956 and April 1961 and list the names of all people who played an important role in these events. I am doing this in an attempt to locate any survivors, or their relatives, in the hope of piecing together the roles played by each and every one. The other goal of this blog is to generate feedback. If you know anything, have any documents, testimonies, letters, pictures, logbooks, memoirs, anything related to these events, I would like to hear from you.
Gilles Hudicourt
Montreal, Canada
hudicourt@gmail.com
Monday, December 24, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
A little Cuban History
This is an aviation story, so I will not invest too much time on this subject. It is however crucial for the reader to have at least some basic knowledge about what historical events led to the Cuban Revolution, in order to fully understand the story I am about to write.
Cuba is the largest Island in the Caribbean, located just south of Florida. Havana, Cuba's capital city is located just 160 km from Key West, and 350 km from Miami. Cuba is a large island. To drive from one end of the other of the island, one must drive about 1500 kilometres, which, even with today's roads, would take close to 18 hours.
Before the European conquest, Cuba was inhabited by several hundred thousand american natives, the Guanajatabey, the Taíno and the Ciboney. Christopher Columbus landed on the island in 1492 and soon Cuba was invaded and colonized by the Spaniards. The Spaniard were very harsh with the natives, who within less than one century had ceased to exist as a people. One cannot state that they were totally annihilated for DNA tests of most old Cuban families will reveal significant percentage of native DNA. When the Spaniards decided to invest in the sugar industry, mostly after 1804, they imported large quantities of slaves from Africa. Slavery was only abolished in Cuba in 1886. There were several insurrectionist movements in Cuba over the centuries: the Natives against the Spanish invaders, the Black Slaves against the Spaniards, and finally the Spaniard Creoles (Cuban-born whites Spaniards) against Spain. In the latter part of the 19th century, Cuba, a Spanish Colony, was doing a lot of trade with the United States, which bought the bulk of the Cuban sugar production. When Cuban nationalists fought the bloody War of Independence against Spain (1895 to 1898) to try to gain their independence, the US intervened by declaring war on Spain. It ended withing weeks with a US victory after what was essentially a naval war. The US then took control of the island from the Cuban Nationalist who had shed so much blood to gain independence and ruled Cuba until 1903 when it was granted "Independence" after "elections" in which the sole candidate was a US citizen of Cuban ancestry living in the US. As one of the conditions for granting "Independence" to the Cubans, the US asked that they be given space on the Island to establish a coaling station for its warships : this is the origin of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base that we will talk about later.
From 1903 to 1959, Cuban politics saw numerous regimes come and go, each with varying degrees of independence or subservience to the United States, but during the whole period, Cuba stayed well with the US sphere of influence, in a period where the Monroe Doctrine set the rules.
With Cuba under US rule, US investments flowed into in, mostly in the sugar and mining industries. Large sugar mills, called Centrales, were built throughout the island. These were like small cities, that in addition to the sugar producing facilities, often had administrative buildings, houses to lodge the US administrators and their families, a school and a club for the foreigners and even a clinic for the American and the mid-level Cuban administrative and technical staff. Rail companies, were created throughout Cuba to link Cuba's major cities, which were eventually merged into the existing Cuban Rail Service. When aviation came of age, mostly after World War One, airports were built at all major Cuban cities. Most large Centrales, also added airstrips to their existing facilities.
With the huge US investments in the Cuban sugar industry, came an increased need for cheap labour. After the US invaded Haiti in 1915, the Centrales began importing Haitian braceros (cane cutters) to Cuba to help cut the sugar cane. That led to the establishment of a large black Haitian minority in Cuba, mostly in the eastern parts of the country.
During World War Two, the US built two large airbases in Cuba, San Antonio de Los Banos, and San Julian, (in addition to the one they already had at Guantanamo). These were used, along with other existing Cuban civilian airports, for antisubmarine and maritime patrol, to ward off and hunt German submarines.
A fairly large Cuban middle class was created during those years that profited from these US investments. The dark skinned Cubans, however, those who until 1886, 17 years before independence, had mostly been slaves, were kept in the sugar cane fields in sub-human conditions and were barred from Cuban social life. Others lived in the mountains living off coffee plantations. As the condition of the Cuban high and middle classes improved, the condition of the poor campesinos, regardless of race and that of the mulatto and black Cubans didn't improve much at all.
After World War Two, there was an economic boom in Cuba, when the tourism industry began to flourish, which lasted until the very end of the Cuban revolution, in late 1958.
In 1958, Cuba was probably the most prosperous and advanced Caribbean island, or even Latin American Country. It was a paradise for its rich elite and a comfortable country for its large middle class. That didn't make it a paradise for a large proportion of its poor citizens, most of which were those with the darker skin tone.
Cuba is the largest Island in the Caribbean, located just south of Florida. Havana, Cuba's capital city is located just 160 km from Key West, and 350 km from Miami. Cuba is a large island. To drive from one end of the other of the island, one must drive about 1500 kilometres, which, even with today's roads, would take close to 18 hours.
Before the European conquest, Cuba was inhabited by several hundred thousand american natives, the Guanajatabey, the Taíno and the Ciboney. Christopher Columbus landed on the island in 1492 and soon Cuba was invaded and colonized by the Spaniards. The Spaniard were very harsh with the natives, who within less than one century had ceased to exist as a people. One cannot state that they were totally annihilated for DNA tests of most old Cuban families will reveal significant percentage of native DNA. When the Spaniards decided to invest in the sugar industry, mostly after 1804, they imported large quantities of slaves from Africa. Slavery was only abolished in Cuba in 1886. There were several insurrectionist movements in Cuba over the centuries: the Natives against the Spanish invaders, the Black Slaves against the Spaniards, and finally the Spaniard Creoles (Cuban-born whites Spaniards) against Spain. In the latter part of the 19th century, Cuba, a Spanish Colony, was doing a lot of trade with the United States, which bought the bulk of the Cuban sugar production. When Cuban nationalists fought the bloody War of Independence against Spain (1895 to 1898) to try to gain their independence, the US intervened by declaring war on Spain. It ended withing weeks with a US victory after what was essentially a naval war. The US then took control of the island from the Cuban Nationalist who had shed so much blood to gain independence and ruled Cuba until 1903 when it was granted "Independence" after "elections" in which the sole candidate was a US citizen of Cuban ancestry living in the US. As one of the conditions for granting "Independence" to the Cubans, the US asked that they be given space on the Island to establish a coaling station for its warships : this is the origin of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base that we will talk about later.
From 1903 to 1959, Cuban politics saw numerous regimes come and go, each with varying degrees of independence or subservience to the United States, but during the whole period, Cuba stayed well with the US sphere of influence, in a period where the Monroe Doctrine set the rules.
With Cuba under US rule, US investments flowed into in, mostly in the sugar and mining industries. Large sugar mills, called Centrales, were built throughout the island. These were like small cities, that in addition to the sugar producing facilities, often had administrative buildings, houses to lodge the US administrators and their families, a school and a club for the foreigners and even a clinic for the American and the mid-level Cuban administrative and technical staff. Rail companies, were created throughout Cuba to link Cuba's major cities, which were eventually merged into the existing Cuban Rail Service. When aviation came of age, mostly after World War One, airports were built at all major Cuban cities. Most large Centrales, also added airstrips to their existing facilities.
With the huge US investments in the Cuban sugar industry, came an increased need for cheap labour. After the US invaded Haiti in 1915, the Centrales began importing Haitian braceros (cane cutters) to Cuba to help cut the sugar cane. That led to the establishment of a large black Haitian minority in Cuba, mostly in the eastern parts of the country.
During World War Two, the US built two large airbases in Cuba, San Antonio de Los Banos, and San Julian, (in addition to the one they already had at Guantanamo). These were used, along with other existing Cuban civilian airports, for antisubmarine and maritime patrol, to ward off and hunt German submarines.
A fairly large Cuban middle class was created during those years that profited from these US investments. The dark skinned Cubans, however, those who until 1886, 17 years before independence, had mostly been slaves, were kept in the sugar cane fields in sub-human conditions and were barred from Cuban social life. Others lived in the mountains living off coffee plantations. As the condition of the Cuban high and middle classes improved, the condition of the poor campesinos, regardless of race and that of the mulatto and black Cubans didn't improve much at all.
After World War Two, there was an economic boom in Cuba, when the tourism industry began to flourish, which lasted until the very end of the Cuban revolution, in late 1958.
In 1958, Cuba was probably the most prosperous and advanced Caribbean island, or even Latin American Country. It was a paradise for its rich elite and a comfortable country for its large middle class. That didn't make it a paradise for a large proportion of its poor citizens, most of which were those with the darker skin tone.
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