Chronology (December 1960 – April 1961)

1960

December 10: Evelio Duke proclaimed himself as unique head of the anti-communist Army. Since he had escaped to hide himself into the Escambray wilderness by the middle of this same year,  he had serious discrepancies with Osvaldo Ramírez. In 1961, he was able to flee abroad.

1961

January 5: Macario Quintana Carrero, Julio Emilio Carretero Escajadillo y Ruperto Ulacia Montelie, all bandits of Osvaldo Ramírez García’s group murdered voluntary teacher Conrado Benítez García and peasant Eliodoro Rodríguez Linares, in Tinajitas, San Ambrosio, Trinidad.

 

The very social wellbeing fanned out by the Revolution nationwide, annoyed Washington; the Cuban Revolution was being radicalized and almost 100 000 youths asked to be integrated to the Literacy Campaign, an educational and cultural event ever made in the island nation before.

January 6: Some of 20 parachutes loaded with weapons, ammo,and explosive were dropped between areas of Condado and Magua, Trinidad.

January 7: U.S weaponry was discharged over the province of Pinar del Rio and the Escambray Sierra from airplanes.

February 6: An aircraft launched 30 parachutes with weapons, ammunition, explosive, portable long-distance communication means and food supply over Santa Lucía, Cabaiguán,  municipality of Las Villas.

Enough loads of armament to feed such anti-Revolution heavily-armed bandits, created and unleashed by the United States, 15 months after the revolutionary victory in 1959, and which counted on the very support of the Republican President Eisenhower administration .

February 13: Other 20 parachutes were thrown from an airplane over the area of El Naranjo, Cumanayagua, Las Villas.

February 17: An airplane dropped 13 parachutes more between San Blas and Circuito Sur, near La Sierrita, Las Villas.

February 26: Bernardo Arias Castillo, Intelligence Department Chief of the Cuban Rebel Army (DIER) in the region of Sancti Spíritus, died in combat against a force of bandits. He had organized the MNR and distinguished to be a staunch of the Revolution. His burial constituted a great bereavement.

March 3: An airplane threw two containers of weapons, ammon and explosive in the areas of Mamey and Charco Azul , both in Las Villas province.

March 7: Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro announced,  before rallies gathered during the ceremony to pay homage to martyrs of the Coubre that the anti-Revolution groups were being exterminated in the Escambray Sierra.

April 15: A slaughter took place in El Portillo ranch, Escambray, when counterrevolutionary bandits murdered peasant Félix Soto Cisneros and his two children, Félix and Rigoberto.