Logo: Fidel Castro

---

Question SA-7. Here is the text reference (p. 205/5):

Fidel Castro was an energetic, articulate and charismatic student leader, offended at the corruption of the Batista regime, and, typical of many revolutionaries, was an alienated and educated member of the middle class. He had been very active in student politics, and had been present in Colombia during the 1948 riots and revolutionary violence known as the "Bogotazo". In 1953 he led a gang of some 160 student revels in a quixotic and suicidal frontal attack on an army barracks in Santiago, Cuba (the date, 26 July 1953, still serves as the official title for Castro's movement). Most of the group were captured or killed. Castro was fortunate to have been spared and put on a show trial, where his defense ("History will absolve me") became one of the basic documents of his revolution. Batista felt secure enough to release Castro (and his brother Raul) and send them into exile in Mexico on the promise that they would not engage in any future political activities.