Battle of La Plata (1957)

On December 2, 1956, 82 rebels of the July 26th Movement, a Cuban revolutionary organization headed by Fidel Castro, whose goal was to topple the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, landed on the coast of southern Cuba near Playa Las Coloradas in Niquero Municipality on a small yacht called the "Granma".^[3] After 3 days trekking through the forests on the way to the Sierra Maestra in order to wage a guerilla campaign, their local guide had abandoned them and told nearby army patrols of the location of the guerillas. They were soon ambushed by the military at the small village Alegría de Pío, which severely crippled the rebels, with most of the 82 men having been killed. Though the survivors of the ambush managed to regroup in the following weeks, only 15 of the former 82 men had survived the ambush, and they lacked necessities such as weapons, equipment, ammunition, food and medicine.^[4] In addition to this, in both the Cuban and international media, it was widely reported that the rebellion had been crushed and Fidel Castro had been killed.^[5]

By January 14, the rebels had trekked deep into the Sierra Maestra and had chosen to stop at the Magdalena River, in order to train what was left of their band and to maintain hygenie which they had abandoned in the days prior. Following this, they climbed a small mountain range after which they had arrived at the La Plata River, where the settlement and barracks of La Plata is located on the Caribbean Sea along the river. Walking along a narrow path in the bush which was cleared by a local peasant named Melquiades Elías, they had captured two peasants who turned out to be relatives of their guide Eutimio Guerra, after which one was released while the other was kept as a precautionary measure.^[6] On January 15, they had arrived in the vicinity of the La Plata barracks, and for the next two days they proceeded to do surveillance on the barracks in preparation for their attack. On the 16th, they crossed the La Plata river and took two peasants hostage, of which one had been an informant, who told the rebels that there were roughly 15 soldiers stationed at the barracks. In addition, they told them that one of the most infamous foremen and military informants in the region, Chicho Osorio, would soon be passing along the road. Osorio was widely disliked by the peasants in the surrounding region due to his brutality towards the locals. To the rebels, killing Osorio would help gain the trust of the locals,^[6] as at the time they were not yet supportive and indifferent to the revolution.^[2]

Later, Osorio appeared on the road, with an Afro-Cuban boy in tow and intoxicated from alcohol. The rebels then tricked Osorio into thinking that they were members of the Cuban Rural Guard, after which Osorio unknowingly gave up critical information to the rebels, such as the names of many in the area who were both sympathetic and unsympathetic to the rebels, in addition to incriminating evidence that he had beaten peasants due to perceived disrespect, and that he had killed two men, after which he was pardoned by Batista.^[7] Fidel had asked Osorio what he would do to him had he captured him, after which Osorio, not knowing that he was speaking to Fidel, gestured that he would kill him. He then showed the rebels his boots, which he had taken from an M-26 member he had captured and killed from the Granma landing. Fidel suggested to Osorio that they should surprise the soldiers at the barracks in order to show them that they were poorly prepared and not properly doing their duty, to which Osorio agreed.^[2]

After crossing the river once again to the barracks, Fidel instructed Osorio that he had to be bound according to military regulations, to which Osorio again agreed, unknowingly making him a true prisoner.^[2] After some scouting, the rebels had located the guards, proving the informant's information to be correct. The rebels then planned to attack the barracks, with Camilo Cienfuegos and two others attacking the barracks from the extreme right, Fidel, Che Guevara and four others to attack from the center, and Raúl Castro, Juan Almeida and the rest of the rebels attacking from the left.^[2]