On May 19, 1957, the Corinthia, a small ship under US registration left Florida's Biscayne Bay headed for Cuba on a Prío-financed revolutionary expedition.

The expeditionary force, led by Calixto Sánchez White, aimed to open a second front against Batista in the Sierra Cristal.

[3] Soon after their landing on May 23 at Cabonico (near Mayarí in north Oriente), a Cabonico man spotted the invading force and tipped off the State Police (Guardia Rural), which were stationed at the barracks in Mayarí, which immediately dispatched men to engage the landing force, and notified other commands including the Army garrison in Holguin commanded by Col. Fermin Cowley.

They belonged to the Authentic Party and had claimed allegiance to M-26-7 and had left Miami for Cuba on the night of May 19, led by Calixto Sánchez White.

[3] He made every effort to comply with the battalion of 500 soldiers and 200 rural guards, very well armed to pursue, surround and annihilate the detachment of future combatants, whose number and names were well known to them.