The guerillas never lacked recruits and frequently turned down
fifty recruits for each one accepted. Instead, a lack of weapons
for potential rebels was always a problem. Most guerilla
armaments were captured from government forces, so a concerted
effort to take the towns would mean a rapid increase in the size
of the guerilla forces. With each defeated garrison, weapons
captured could arm more peasants could be armed. The larger
forces could attack larger garrisons, capture more arms, and arm
yet more peasants and soon the guerillas would be strong enough
to threaten Cuba's major cities.
Che and Camilo kept their movements as secret as possible. The
plan was not to reveal their presence until ready to attack.
Once Che's column ran into an army unit and, in their haste to
get away, a knapsack with a complete roll of names for the column
was accidently left behind. A few days later while they were
listening to an Havana radio station, General Tabernilla came on
the air and announced that the army had just killed scores of
guerillas - and he had the names of the dead to prove it. He
then read the names of everyone in Che's column. The guerillas
were amused to hear of their deaths!
A few nights later, Radio Rebelde came on with the answer.
"What is 03C? Zero Cinema. Zero Consmer Purchases. Zero
Cabaret" Short professionally produced announcements urged
people to buy nothing but the barest necessities to bring the
economy to a halt. "If all Cuba is at war, don't you go to
the cabaret!" Rebelde, however, had jumped too soon; not all
the ads werein print yet. Apparently Batista's censors didn't
listen to Radio Rebelde, as none of the remaining ads were
pulled. Moreover, the campaign suceeded as the Cuban economy
slowly began to collapse.
In mid-December there was a long string of guerilla victories, as
town after town fell. Listening to the Zenith on December 25th,
Macaulay heard Radio Rebelde read a long list of weapons and
ammunition captured by Che's forces in Las Villas. Escalona's
men salivated over the weapons; if only they could get a few.
Elsewhere, the guerillas found novel uses for radio. In early
December, rebel Captain Perez Alamo's men had stolen Santiago
police chief Haza's new black Oldsmobile 98. Hidden in their
mountain hideout overlooking the city, every night the guerillas
gathered around the car as Perez revved up the engine. Then he
turned on the two-way police radio and announced, "Listen,
Haza. We still have have your car up here. When are you going
to come get it?" The guerillas howled in laughter at the
string of obscenities that came back.
Cuban citizens and shortwave listeners continued to tune in to
rebel radio-telephone conversations daily, such as this one
between column commanders Cienfuegos and Guevara.
Meanwhile in Pinar del Rio, Escalona's column was listening to
news of the battle at Santa Clara. When Macaulay tuned in US
medium wave broadcasts on the Transoceanic, all the news focused
on Cuba and Santa Clara. Cuba was the lead story in Edward R.
Murrow's last broadcast of 1958. He said that more soldiers had
arrived to reinforce the garrison at Santa Clara and that the
guerilla offensive had been stopped. Next Macaulay hunted down
Radio Rebelde and other guerilla communications. The more they
listened, the worse it sounded for the revolution. Some of the
rebel two-way traffic was frenzied.
The next morning, New Year's Day, 1959, Macaulay got up at 7:00
a.m. He quickly found a Key West AM station. The main story was
shocking, but clear - Batista had left the island!! He shouted
"Batista sali�!!" and the entire rebel camp erupted in
chaos.
Soon, Macaulay was translating the details for the others.
Details were sparse, but apparently there had been a coup
d'etat. General Cantillo was now in charge, and Batista had
fled into exile. Furthermore, Che had won in Santa Clara.
Retuning the Zenith, they heard rebels in Las Villas joking and
congratulating each other, but the main Rebelde station from the
Sierra Maestra wasn't on. There was nothing about the coup on
Havana stations which were playing music, but there was an
announcement about an important news conference later. Escalona
got the men together to march to the lowlands; they would have to
block the main highway. The march was different this time in
that the Zenith was strapped over a guerilla's shoulder, tuned to
CMQ, Havana's largest station.
In Palma Soriano, Carlos Franqui had also gotten up at dawn.
Walking to Radio Rebelde, he heard excited voices and asked what
was
going on. When he heard there were reports that Batista had fled
the
island, Franqui ran to the station and tried to make contact with
Havana. Vicente Baez, a 26th of July leader in Havana, affirmed
that
Batista had fled and added that General Cantillo was trying to form
a
junta. In Havana, Castro's underground was already taking control
of
the city's radio and TV stations. Short speeches and announcements
were mixed with continuous playing of the national anthem.
Citizens
were ordered to remain indoors and all businesses were told to
close.
Rebelde was in communication with commercial broadcaster CMKC in
Santiago. CMKC informed Castro of what they knew about the
situation in Havana & Santiago - that revolutionaries had taken
over many buildings & were patrolling the streets, but Batista's
forces were still holed up in their fortresses. Castro kicked
everyone out of the room except Franqui, the technician & a few
announcers. He wanted to broadcast a speech and record it for
repeat airing at the same time. That was impossible with their
current set-up. He would have to record first, then broadcast.
Castro stepped aside and glanced over some scribbled words in a
battered notebook pulled from his pocket. He edited and added a
few more lines. He and most of his troops were isolated 600
miles from Havana. He knew that the next few days in Havana
would spell success or failure. The government could easily be
passed on to "reformist" generals or traditional
politicians. The guerillas would be forgotten. But, "he
had two advantages which were beyond the experience of the old
fashioned politicos: he had an army willing to die and to kill to
achieve victory, and he had the ability to ignore the military
men and politicians because, via radio, he could appeal directly
to the people, to gain throughout the country a mass support, the
likes of which had never been seen before in Cuba" (Dorschner
& Fabricio). With that in mind, Castro recorded the most
important speech in his career.
Fidel's booming voice came on, "Whatever the news from the
capital may be, our troops must not cease fire at any time...our
troops must continue their operations on all battlefronts...
Parlays should be granted only to those garrisons that wish to
surrender... The people should continue listening to Radio
Rebelde and make immediate preparations in every work center to
declare a general strike as soon as the order is given, if
necessary, to thwart any attempt at counterrevolutionary
coup..." Castro dropped his text and shouted in an enraged
voice, "A military coup behind the backs of the people and
the Revolution, no! Because it would only serve to prolong the
war ... Robbing the people of their victory, no! ... No one
should be confused or deceived! ... The people and the Rebel Army
must be more united and firmer that ever so as not to let slip
the victory that has cost so much blood ... Revolution, yes!
Military coup, no!"
Several Cuban broadcasters taped the speech off the air and
immediately reaired it. Almost everyone in Cuba heard it. The
speech had the effect Castro wanted. The Cuban people fell in
behind him.
Across the island, the Cuban army in its fortified garrisons had
no stomach to fight anymore and no idea of who was really in
charge. As word of the fall of Batista spread, thousands of
machete-welding peasants joined the guerillas. Most garrisons
around the country quickly surrendered to the first guerilla
commander who showed up at their gate. In mid-afternoon, Che
announced over his Rebelde transmitter that the last troops in
Santa Clara had surrendered. With their newly captured weapons,
the guerillas continued to arm the peasants. If the generals in
Havana played any dirty tricks, the rebels were ready to march on
the city.
Late that evening, Ramon Barquin, the rebellious colonel
imprisoned on the Isle of Pines, was released and flown to Camp
Columbia. In a desperate bid to preserve something of the old
order, Cantillo placed Barquin in command of the Cuban army and,
in effect, in command of Cuba. Barquin, Cantillo thought, was
one of them, and surely his anti-Batista history could stave off
a Castro victory.
The next morning, January second, the revolutionaries at Camp
Columbia called Franqui and put Barquin on the radio. Franqui
passed along an order from Fidel for Barquin to turn Camp
Columbia over to Camilo Cienfuegos and his men, who would arrive
that evening. Barquin didn't flinch; he had no plans to carry on
with a lost struggle. He offered to turn the base over to
Franqui right then. Surprised, Franqui pointed out that he
couldn't very well take control of the base by radio from six
hundred miles away. Barquin would have to wait for Camilo.
Shortly afterwards, Barquin made a speech on Cuban radio
announcing that he would turn the government over to the 26th of
July Movement and place the Cuban army under the command of
Castro's new Chief of Staff, Camilo Cienfuegos.
By the evening of January 2nd, Fidel Castro's guerillas were
firmly in command of Cuba. Cienfuegos and 700 guerillas occupied
Camp Columbia, and Che Guevara's column marched into Havana's
other principal army base, La Caba�a. Meanwhile, Castro's column
entered Santiago as thousands of citizens filled the streets to
cheer them. Radio Rebelde moved into CMKC's building. Elsewhere
on the island, Castro's rebels took over government buildings,
police stations, and all centers of communication. Batista's
former henchmen were rounded up and jailed.
Leaving Santiago and Oriente under brother Raul, Fidel left
Santiago for Havana. He traveled by road and was stopped
frequently by crowds demanding speeches. The six hundred mile
journey to Havana took a week. Finally, on January 8 Fidel
arrived. The streets were filled with cheering throngs. The
rest of Cuba watched his triumphant entry on TV or listened on
the radio. He made his way to Camp Columbia and made a televised
speech before a crowd of thousands. Someone in the audience
released three white doves as a symbol of peace; one landed on
Fidel's shoulder and stayed there during most of the speech.
Finally, it seemed, freedom had come to Cuba.
If any one thing was responsible for bringing Fidel Castro to
power, besides the presence of the corrupt Batista regime, it was
Radio Rebelde. Castro himself said the Radio Rebelde was worth
"ten columns" of troops. Radio Rebelde publicized the
revolution. As Che Guevara later wrote, "When we began to
broadcast from our own transmitter, the existence of our troops
and their fighting determination became known throughout the
Republic" (Guevara). Furthermore, Rebelde's presence became
a symbol of weakness in the government. It "punctured the
myth of Batista's invincibility, and as a result, the clandestine
station became the lightning rod for the vast majority of the
Cuban population opposed to the dictatorship" (Soley &
Nichols). Radio Rebelde made Castro's movement the center of the
anti-Batista forces in the mind of the Cuban people.
In the history of clandestine radio warfare, few stations can
compare to Radio Rebelde. Rebelde was both a voice of the
guerillas to the people and a complicated network of mobile
transmitters linking dozens of guerillas bands into a cohesive
fighting force. Furthermore, it was sucessful. Radio Rebelde is
one of just a handful of clandestine stations that survived a
revolution to come down from the mountains and become a voice of
its national government. Today, Radio Rebelde operates some of
the most powerful medium wave transmitters in the Americas on
numerous frequencies. Its broadcasts are relayed to the world
via shortwave on 5025 and 3366 kHz. Why not tune in Radio
Rebelde tonight, and imagine the station in its glory days ... in
a mud hut in the heart of the rugged Sierra Maestra ....
"Free territory in Cuba."
Castro's Radio Rebelde. FRENDX (The Journal of the North
American Shortwave Association). September, 1967.
Dorschner, John & Roberto Fabricio. The Winds of December.
New York: Coward, McCahn, & Geoghegan. 1980.
Early Pro-Castro Cuban Illicit Broadcasts. FRENDX (The
Journal of the North American Shortwave Association). July,
1967.
Franqui, Carlos. Diary of the Cuban Revolution. New
York: Viking Penguin. 1980.
Guevara, Che. Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary
War. New York & London: MR Press, 1968.
Macaulay, Neill. A Rebel in Cuba. Chicago: Quadrangle
Books. 1970.
Martin, Lionel. The Early Fidel. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle
Stuart. 1978.
Matthews, Herbert L. Revolution in Cuba. New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons. 1975.
Ratcliff, William E. The Selling of Fidel Castro. New
Brunswick: Transaction Books. 1987.
Soley, Lawrence C. & John S. Nichols. Clandestine Radio
Broadcasting. New York: Praeger. 1987.
Thomas, Hugh. Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom. New York:
Harper & Row 1971.
This article is copyright 1993 by Don Moore.It may not be printed
in
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Radio History
Clandestine Radio
Revolution!
Clandestine Radio
and the Rise of Fidel CastroBy Don Moore
REBELDE ON THE OFFENSIVE
In September, 1958, Radio Rebelde announced that Castro was going
on the offensive. Six columns of guerillas, led by Che Guevara
and Camilo Cienfuegos, set out for the center of the island to
join smaller bands in the Escambray Mountains. It was no longer
as much a guerilla war, as a traditional war of manuevering
armies. Fidel planned to take the war to the towns and capture
them. ZERO THREE C
In early December, Radio Rebelde carried out one its most
important and daring broadcasts. A sypmpathetic American
businessman placed full page ads in Cuba's most popular
newspapers and magazines that read simply "What is 03C?"
To anyone who asked, he explained that the ads were part of a
teaser campaign for a new hair tonic. As the next ad would
reveal, 03C stood for zero calvicie (baldness), zero
caspa (dandruff) and zero canas (grey hair). The
intriguing ads were soon the talk of Havana. CHE: Well, Camilo, I see that its' bothering you,
eh? It's a caterpillar tank. Its markings are slightly burned,
but it's very pretty. . . The enemy is concentrated in the usual
places . . . I heard you tell Fidel that you were going to take
Santa Clara and I don't know what the hell else, but don't you
butt in there because that's mine ... (Franqui)
Che was busily arming hundreds of peasants who were flocking to
his column. Other columns joined Che's, and soon he had an army
ready to assault Santa Clara, the third largest city in Cuba. By
December 28th, most of Oriente, Camaguey, and Las Villas
provinces were under Fidelista control. Santiago was under seige
and the battle for Santa Clara was about to begin. THE FALL OF BATISTA
On December 31st, the collapse of Batista seemed imminent.
Fidel's column occupied the small city of Palma Soriano, on the
main highway thirty miles outside Santiago. Radio Rebelde, with
a 120 watt Collins 32-V-2 transmitter and a tape recorder, moved
into a bedroom in a little corner house at 201 Quintin Banderas
Street. Carlos Franqui found a room a few blocks away.
"Cuban Red Cross Calling, Cuban Red Cross ..."
Rebel broadcasts were too chaotic to follow, so Macaulay
continued scanned the dials. According to Venezuelan Radio
Continente's news, the Fidelista offensive was still going
strong. They were usually accurate. Radio Moscow exaggerated,
putting Rebel forces in control of cities that hadn't been
attacked. By contrast, a Dallas AM station announced gleefully
that this was the end of Castro. The 11:00 p.m. CBS news was a
final blow of bad news. "Forces loyal to President Batista of
Cuba have defeated a large rebel force at Santa Clara." The
news
went on to say that the army would pursue the retreating rebels.
Futhermore, a government spokesman "expressed confidence that
the
two-year-old Cuban civil war is nearing its end" (Macaulay).
On
that depressing note, Macaulay turned in for the night.
"Listen here, chico, we have six comrades badly wounded at
kilometer sixteen ..."
"OK! OK! We shall try to send a truck out for them. In the
name
of God, tell your people not to shoot at us ..."
"Calling Comandante William Morgan! Comandante William
Morgan!..."
"Hear me! Hear me! Send us reinforcements. We need help -
ammunition! If we stay here they will wipe us out. We are
going to move north..." (Macaulay)
FIDEL SPEAKS TO THE PEOPLE
Fidel had been in the countryside, out of touch with events.
Walking to Palma Soriano, he forded a small river to a cheering
crowd on the other side. As Castro stood there with his pants
dripping wet, the crowd told him that Batista had left and the
war was over. Rather than being overjoyed, he cursed. Couldn't
they see this was just what he feared - a military coup to
sidetrack the revolution? He quickly rushed by jeep to Radio
Rebelde - his best hope to advert disaster. 
Throughout Cuba, people heard announcements that Castro would
soon speak on Rebelde. Commercial stations told their listeners.
People everywhere tuned in to Rebelde and listened expectantly.
In Pinar del Rio, Escalona's men halted their march to gather
around the Transoceanic one more time. At 9 A.M. came the
announcement everyone had been waiting for, "Now coming to the
microphone of Radio Rebelde, is the supreme leader of the Cuban
Revolution, Doctor Fidel Castro Ruz, to broadcast declarations of
the utmost importance." ON TO HAVANA
Franqui's staff was still making contacts with revolutionaries
around the island. Franqui remembered "Among the voices heard
on
the air was one called Columbia Rebelde. It turned out to be
Armando Hart and Mario Hidalgo, leaders of the 26th of July, who
had been freed from the Isle of Pines prison and were at Camp
Columbia (the main military base in Havana). I told Hidalgo that
Cantillo was a traitor. Hidalgo answered: 'Cantillo's here
beside me.' I thought that would be the end of Hidalgo because
there were twenty thousand soliders at Camp Columbia and fewer
than twenty revolutionaries" (Franqui). THE FINAL ANALYSIS
Freedom, of course, was not to be. The story of how Castro
slowly consolidated his one man-rule over Cuba and moved leftward
into the Communist camp is another tale, not to be told here.
But, for a few brief months, Cuba had hope in Fidel Castro as its
key to freedom. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cannon, Terrence. Revolutionary Cuba. New York: Thomas &
Crowell. 1981.
Association of North American Radio Clubs
DXer of the Year for 1995.