The Revolution in Power
With the revolutionary triumph of January 1, 1959, political power in Jagüey Grande, Agramonte and Torriente passed into the hands of the members of the M-26-7, a process consolidated days later with the arrival of the first officers and combatants of the triumphant Army. Rebel.
On January 6, Captain Alberto Ibietatorremendía Vega arrived in Jagüey Grande, acclaimed by the people and his family, who had joined the Rebel Army staying for two days in the town.
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Captain Alberto Ibietatorremendía with his family and escorts on January 6, 1959. |
As in all the towns, at the beginning a triumvirate of integrated power was formed in Jagüey Grande by Rodolfo Carrasco Arévalo, Fidel González and Roberto Delgado. The latter two of bourgeois affiliation, later traitors to the revolutionary cause, Fidel González emigrated to Miami and Roberto Delgado was recruited by the CIA and shot for his counterrevolutionary activities.
In Agramonte, revolutionary power was assumed by the M-26-7 headed by Emérito García. Deep changes and measures began to undermine bourgeois power and establish the new economic and social order. On March 26, 1959, the Prime Minister of the Revolutionary government, Fidel Castro Ruz, made his first visit to Jagüey Grande after the victory. He met with workers and settlers from central Australia.
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March 26, 1959. First visit of the Prime Minister of the revolutionary government, Fidel Castro Ruz, to Jagüey Grande. He addressed the workers and settlers in Central Australia. |
In March 1959, Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, in the company of several commanders and several revolutionaries, arrived on the track of central Australia to participate in the rescue of the then head of the air force and soon after a traitor to the Revolution, Pedro Luis Díaz Lanz. His helicopter had fallen 4 km north of the Treasure Lagoon in the Zapata Swamp.
On May 20, 1960, 80 land titles were delivered to the farmers of Jagüey Grande, in January they had been delivered to those in central Australia. Several cooperatives were established, with the second Agrarian Reform Law, enacted in 1963, more than 30% of arable land passed to the State.
In March 1962, Commander Ernesto Che Guevara again visited the track of central Australia, this time accompanied by several Soviet geologists to implement a plan with a view to discovering the reserves and the quality of the existing peat in the Cienaga de Shoe. After having a short helicopter tour, which included Guamá, at dusk he returned to the runway of central Australia where the Cessna plane and its pilot Eliseo de la Campa were waiting for him. At that location, he fired a few shots at the target and missed none.
Upon saying goodbye, at the request of the Soviets, he agreed to portray himself with them alongside the pilot and three children. On the return to Havana, he personally piloted the Cessna plane.
On July 11, 1962, the Municipal Committee of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations was established in Jagüey Grande, with its first secretary, Conrado Chateloín.
Since the first half of 1961, work had been done on the organization of the ORIS Committees. In Agramonte the constitution of the Committee took place on August 29, 1961, its secretary being Raúl González. The foundation of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of the Victoria de Girón region, a structure that took over the area until 1966, was made on December 15, 1962. Its first secretary was Avelino Rodríguez.
On December 4, 1965, in a massive act, the Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba of Jagüey Grande was presented with Alberto Rivera as general secretary. In the same way, the UJC, the Pioneers Organization, the FMC, the CDR, the ANAP and the labor movement were constituted.
On April 17, 1961, the mercenary attack occurred through the Bay of Pigs, later Playa Girón. The participation of the jagüeyense town was decisive, battalion 225 participated in the fighting and the FAR Command was located in the Central Australia Administration Office, from where Captain José Ramón Fernández Álvarez and Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, They led the fighting. Dozens of institutions and centers in Jagüey Grande became blood hospitals, evacuation places, popular kitchens were established, blood and food donations, care for the fallen, Jagüey became the safe rearguard for victory.
From the beginning of the revolutionary triumph, Yankee imperialism and the CIA promoted the counterrevolution by organizing disaffected elements in groups of rebels who were then known as bands of rebels or bandits, as Fidel Castro described them. In Jagüey Grande, from 1961 to 1964, several of these gangs operated. The most connoted for his criminal actions was that of the well-known Perico Sánchez, also that of Yeyo Peña and Pichi Carratalá, that of Almeida as well as that of Eliecer Martínez, Ana Belkis and Gervasio Cabrera.
These bandits had as their center of operations the entire territory occupied by the current municipality of Jagüey Grande and the Ciénaga de Zapata, they dedicated themselves to carrying out sabotage consisting of burning sugar cane fields, schools, peasant houses, murders, threats, mistreatment and all kinds of of crimes. There are dozens of obelisks that remember the children of this town who were cowardly murdered.
In 1960, the National Revolutionary Militias were created, which involved the cleaning of the Escambray and in the battle of Playa Girón. The fight against bandits in the Jagüey Grande area was made very difficult by the support they received from part of the population that owns shops, transport, basic services and some peasants, which motivated the revolutionary interventions to take place since 9 from May 1963 to 61 establishments, owners of trucks and cars that provided resources to the gangs of rebels, a process that was carried out by the PURS, the revolutionary national militias, MINCIN. From this moment, Popular power was established in Jagüey Grande, second place where it was established and the first in Matanzas.
In a massive event held on May 10 at the Eleuterio Paz park in Jagüey Grande, to reaffirm the revolutionary nature of the interventions, it was decided to call the Mendía hotel "May 9".
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