Ciro Redondo García

Cuban revolutionary fighter, member of the 26th of July Movement, assailant of the Moncada Barracks, expeditionary of the Granma and fighter of the Rebel Army.

He was part of the group of young men who under the command of Fidel Castro participated in the actions of July 26, 1953 for which he was sentenced to prison. Granted amnesty due to popular pressure, he went into exile and returned to Cuba in the expedition of the yacht Granma that landed on December 2, 1956 on the southern coast of the province of Oriente.

As a fighter of the Rebel Army he attained the rank of captain. He died in combat against the troops of the army in November 1957 and was posthumously promoted to the rank of commander.

He was born in Artemisa, Pinar del Río. His early studies were in a private school and later he attended the Pitman Academy. At the Pitman Academy he graduated in shorthand and bookkeeping. In early 1951 he began working at the La Casa Cabrera store where he was caught by the coup d'état of March 10, 1952.

After the military coup he began to conspire against the regime and under the orders of Fidel Castro he was part of the group of young men who on July 26, 1953 attempted to assault the Moncada Barracks. When the action failed he managed to leave Santiago de Cuba along with five other companions, among whom were Julio Díaz and Marcos Martí Rodríguez. They reached the vicinity of Siboney beach in a jeep and then each went in a different direction.

Ciro continued in the company of Marcos Martí. A family hid them in a cave where they remained four days, but due to a denunciation they were surprised and captured by the army. When they were being transported on the road Marcos Martí was shot in the back and Ciro was beaten. He managed to save his life thanks to one of the guards who did not allow him to be killed there.

Tried in court, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. On October 12, the Minister of Interior, Ramón Heredia, ordered that the group of revolutionaries convicted for the events at the Moncada, which included Ciro Redondo, be transferred to the National Prison on the Isle of Pines. According to the court's orders they were to remain in special facilities, separated from common prisoners. In DC-3 army planes, under heavy military custody, they were transported from the province of Oriente to the Isle of Pines.

He was placed, along with the rest of his companions, in one of the rooms of the prison hospital, separated from common prisoners by a brick wall that was built for that purpose. Shortly after he was permitted to receive a visit once a month and some correspondence, which was always severely reviewed and censored.

Like the rest of his companions, he refused to accept the special dinner on December 24, 1953 in protest against the murders committed by the army and rural guard during the events at the Moncada[3].

Ciro Redondo was transferred to Havana heading to Pinar del Río, from February 29 to March 2, 1954, as accused in Case 125 of 1953 of the Court of Pinar del Río, conducted in Artemisa due to the discovery in Pijirigua of one of the farms that had been used for military training before the assault on the Moncada Barracks.

From 1954 and with greater force beginning in 1955 a broad national movement began, which encompassed almost all political tendencies and classes in the country, in favor of a general amnesty that would include the Moncada fighters. On March 10, 1955, amid official celebrations of the third anniversary of the coup d'état, amnesty bills were presented in both chambers of the Cuban Congress. On May 6, after being approved by both chambers of the Cuban Congress, Fulgencio Batista signed the Amnesty Law that freed all political prisoners, including the assailants of the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks who were serving their sentences in the Isle of Pines prison.

In early 1956 he was arrested under the accusation of distributing the first manifestos calling again for struggle. For this cause he spent 32 days in prison and then was released on provisional liberty, but before he was taken to the SIM where he was filed and several photos were taken of him and he was then forbidden from returning home.

On March 20, 1956 he boarded the steamship Covadonga bound for Mexico. There he reunited and joined Fidel and other companions in the preparations for the expedition of the yacht Granma. In June of that same year he was arrested in Mexico along with the leadership of the 26th of July Movement so he spent several days in jail. After being released they continued with the preparations until November 26 when they departed from Tuxpan on the Granma toward Cuba.

Ciro was among the 82 men who landed at Las Coloradas Beach on December 2, 1956 and was one of those who after the defeat at Alegría de Pío in which many were dispersed, captured and killed, reunited with Fidel and other companions to continue the struggle. Already in the Sierra Maestra.

As part of the original core of the Rebel Army, Ciro Redondo participated in much of the combat waged by the guerrilla in the first year of the War of Liberation. He participated in the attack on the military post of La Plata on January 17, the combat of Arroyo del Infierno on the 22nd of that same month and the combat of Altos de Espinosa (February 9).

In mid-March 1957 the small rebel troop received the first major reinforcement in men and weapons sent from the plains by the chief of Action and Sabotage of the 26th of July Movement, Frank País García. It consisted of some fifty men under the command of Captain Jorge Sotús. With this troop the Column 1 José Martí was restructured and Ciro became part of the General Staff or Command, under the direct orders of Fidel.

He would later participate in the attack on Bueycito (July 31), the combat of El Hombrito (August 30) and the first combat of Pino del Agua (September 20).

He dies on November 29, 1957 in the combat of Mar Verde while impetuously charging against the troops of Sánchez Mosquera. The day after his death, the General Command of the Revolutionary forces in the Sierra Maestra decreed his posthumous promotion to the rank of Commander of the Revolutionary Army.

On December 9 the letter arrived to his parents informing them of his death; on that date he was turning 26 years old. Today Cuba pays him homage at the Mausoleum to the martyrs of Artemisa.