“This was the situation in the early 1950’s which the forces or the movement led by Fidel Castro was determined to change. The first major event on their program was the July, 1953 assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba, the second city way out on the eastern portion of the island. It was a total failure. It didn’t even last thirty minutes-Fidel’s Buick broke down and everything else that could go wrong went wrong. Most of them were captured…That Batista dictatorship executed about sixty-one of the one hundred and twenty or so who assaulted the Moncada barracks in the first day or so. The Church intervened and Fidel and the others were saved. But they were tried, convicted and sentenced to long prison terms, Fidel for fifteen years. They were sent to the prison on the Isle of Pines, which is the large island off the southwestern coast of Cuba, which has since been renamed the Isle of Youth.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
Philip Agee, “A Century of War and Bad Faith; Cuba History, and the CIA,” Prevailing Winds Magazine, March 9, 1994, Page 23