Indeed, the year 1956 marks a pivotal turn in Cuban history and, consequently, in the broader geopolitical landscape of the Cold War era. It was in this year that Fidel Castro, having regrouped and strategized in Mexico, returned to Cuba to launch the revolutionary struggle that would ultimately reshape his nation and challenge American foreign policy.
Prior to his return, Castro had faced significant setbacks in Cuba. In 1953, he had led an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in Santiago, an act that resulted in his imprisonment. Upon his release, Castro went into exile in Mexico. This period in Mexico was crucial, not only for his personal safety but also for the ideological and strategic development of his revolutionary movement. It was there that he famously met the Argentine revolutionary, Che Guevara. While specific details of their activities in Mexico in 1956 are not extensively detailed in the provided sources, we can infer that Mexico City, known for being a place where individuals might find themselves in “Deep Doodoo” and in need of legal connections, served as a temporary haven and a base for planning.
With his forces assembled and a strategy devised, Castro “returned in 1956 to Cuba”. His initial contingent was a “tiny force”, but they immediately engaged in guerrilla warfare. This struggle took place from the “jungles and mountains against Batista’s army”. The efficacy of this approach was evident, as it gradually began “drawing more and more popular support”. This marked the true beginning of the armed phase of the Cuban Revolution on the island.
The efforts initiated in 1956 would culminate just over two years later when Castro’s forces “came out of the mountains and marched across the country to Havana”. The existing government, under Fulgencio Batista, finally collapsed on “New Year’s Day 1959”. This successful overthrow represented a significant blow to U.S. foreign policy, particularly given the long-standing American business interests that had dominated the Cuban economy, including control of 80 to 100 percent of utilities, mines, cattle ranches, and oil refineries, 40 percent of the sugar industry, and 50 percent of public railways. The U.S. had even maintained a naval base at Guantanamo, despite having repealed the Platt Amendment which permitted American intervention in Cuba.
Castro’s return in 1956 was thus far from a mere geographical relocation; it was the audacious and determined re-entry of a revolutionary leader into a landscape ripe for change, setting the stage for one of the most transformative geopolitical shifts in the Western Hemisphere during the Cold War.