San Juan Hill massacre
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 Firing squad about to execute Lieutenant Enrique Despaigne Noret during the San Juan Hill massacre. | |
| Date | January 12, 1959 |
|---|---|
| Location | Santiago de Cuba |
| Type | Massacre |
| Motive | War crimes committed during the Cuban Revolution by Batista collaborators. |
| Organized by | Raúl Castro |
| Deaths | 71-73 |
| Burial | Mass grave |
The San Juan Hill massacre or the Massacre of the 71[1] occurred on January 12, 1959 at San Juan Hill in Santiago de Cuba in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution. 71 people accused of collaboration with the former regime of Fulgencio Batista were executed by firing squad after quick trials and buried in a mass grave.[2]
After the final rebel victory in the Cuban Revolution on January 1, 1959, dozens of Fulgencio Batista's supporters and members of the armed forces and police were arrested and accused of war crimes and other abuses.[3] According to Time magazine, many of the accused:
"were proved killers whose twisted minds drew pleasure from pain. To extract secrets from captured rebels, they yanked out fingernails, carbonized hands and feet in red-hot vises. Castration was a major police weapon...."[2]
Archivos Cuba alleges that the majority of those accused had not committed any crime.[3] The 1940 Cuban constitution prohibited the death penalty, but that constitution had been recently overturned[citation needed].
