José Antonio Echeverría Bianchi

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He was one of the most prominent revolutionary leaders that Cuban youth had, and very especially, the university student movement.

He was born in Cárdenas, Matanzas. He was the first son of the marriage formed by Antonio Echeverría González and Concepción Bianchi Tristán. In this same city his childhood took place, he completed his primary studies and graduated with a degree in Sciences.

Later he moved to La Habana and entered the University where he enrolled in the Architecture program in the 1950-1951 academic year. From this moment on his political-revolutionary thinking became firmly established and he began his struggles for an independent Cuba.

When he had barely surpassed 20 years of age, his political thinking was already characterized by revolutionary radicalism and anti-imperialism. Due to his firm position against the pacifist formulas of bourgeois politicians and his conviction that armed struggle was the path to liberation, José Antonio managed to gather around him the most honest and courageous fighters from the university student body. The self-denial and exemplary courage with which he carried out all revolutionary activities also contributed to giving him prestige as a leader.

In September 1954 he was elected president of the FEU and in 1955 he was re-elected to this position due to his determination to fight, his courage and political maturity. At the end of that same year he founded, together with other comrades, the Directorio Revolucionario, a clandestine organization of students to combat the tyranny.

The Directorio Revolucionario became the most representative organization of Cuban students as a social sector in the struggle against tyranny. Under José Antonio's direction, student actions intensified; daily demonstrations, rallies and strikes took place throughout the country which generally resulted in bloody clashes with police.

His work as a revolutionary leader was not only limited to Cuba. In mid-1956, José Antonio left for Chile to participate in a congress of Latin American students, and later traveled through several countries in which he denounced the regime of terror imposed in Cuba by the Batista tyranny and publicized the revolutionary ideas of Cuban youth.

In August of that same year he traveled to Mexico to hold a meeting with Fidel Castro, in which Faure Chomón and Fructuoso Rodríguez would also participate for the Directorio Revolucionario, as well as other leaders of the Movimiento 26 de Julio, including the Head of Action and Sabotage of the Oriente province, Frank País.

This meeting took place with the objective of coordinating the action plans of both organizations with respect to the armed struggle that would take place on the Island from that moment forward. As a result of these conversations Fidel and José Antonio signed a document called Carta de México or Pacto de México, which constituted a step of extraordinary importance in the unification of the revolutionary forces that would carry out the final and defining stage of the war of liberation in Cuba.

After this meeting in Mexico, José Antonio, Faure, Fructuoso and Frank País returned to Cuba. Following this meeting, and encouraged by its results, the revolutionary forces intensified their actions at the end of 1956. As a consequence of the intensification of revolutionary actions in the cities and to follow up on what was agreed in the "Carta de México", on March 13, 1957 José Antonio, together with the other leaders of the Directorio Revolucionario, decided to attack the Presidential Palace and thus eliminate the dictator Fulgencio Batista and, on the other hand, to take over the Radio Reloj station to publicize the events.

This day this courageous student leader lost his life when finishing the Radio Reloj operation and as they were heading to the University of La Habana, the car in which they were traveling had an encounter with a patrol car and combat ensued; in that shooting José Antonio Echeverría was killed.

On March 13, 1957, just a few hours before falling in an unequal combat, the president of the Federación Estudiantil Universitaria, José Antonio Echeverría, decreed in his political testament: "If we fall, may our blood mark the path to freedom".

That day in La Habana a group of young people, mostly university students, carried out one of the most audacious episodes during the insurrectional struggle that led to the triumph of the Cuban Revolution: the assault on the Presidential Palace. That feat was part of the commitment signed in 1956 by the Directorio Revolucionario and the Movimiento 26 de Julio, in the Carta de México, a document in which both organizations made their own the tradition of struggle bequeathed by generations of Cubans who in other times also undertook the path of history and sowed examples.

After several days of meticulous clandestine activity, the action took place by a commando of the Directorio Revolucionario, which would penetrate by surprise into the palatial mansion with the purpose of executing the dictator Fulgencio Batista. At the scheduled time, 3:22 in the afternoon, two cars and a truck with the suggestive sign Fast Delivery stopped in unison in front of one of the posts of the Palace and with direct fire not only managed to break into the interior of the compound but kept the military garrison in check as it withdrew before the display of courage of the revolutionaries; Batista fled in panic toward the roof of the Palace and managed to escape the people.

The enemy's superiority in men and weapons, together with the failure to mobilize a group of fighters that would have supported the assault, were factors that prevented success. At the moment when "that colossal dialogue with bullets" was taking place, the student leader José Antonio Echeverría together with other young people, occupied the microphones of the Radio Reloj station to announce the execution of the tyrant and call for popular insurrection.

His fiery speech was cut short, because the regime in power took the station off the air. Minutes later he fell, pistol in hand, when confronting the thugs of a patrol car next to the walls of the University of La Habana. The action of March 13, 1957 did not achieve the expected triumph; however, it demonstrated to the tyranny the heroism of men united in a common ideal against exploitation, abuse and ignominy and was, likewise, an expression of loyalty to the people and to the Revolution led by Fidel Castro.

Fruit of the most valuable of the student youth of his time, José Antonio Echeverría inscribed his name in history when he fell in combat in front of the walls of his beloved trench of struggle: the University of La Habana. Signed by Fidel and José Antonio, the Carta de México became a commitment to combat for an entire generation to defeat the dictatorship imposed in Cuba with Yankee approval and under the force of arms and terror. With the guidance of that Architecture student and the sacrifice of many compatriots, the streets of La Habana ceased to be a panacea for the despicable and criminal regime of Fulgencio Batista. The promise made by José Antonio to confront the tyrant with weapons in hand became reality on the thirteenth of March, nineteen fifty-seven with the assault on the Presidential Palace and the takeover of Radio Reloj.