Menelao Mora Morales (Chief)  †Carlos Gutiérrez Menoyo  † José Antonio Echeverría  † Faure Chomón Mediavilla Ignacio Gonzalez[1] Fulgencio Batista The 1957 Havana Presidential Palace attack was a failed assassination attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista at the Presidential Palace in Havana, Cuba.

[2] According to one of the group's founding members, Faure Chomón, they were following the golpe arriba strategy and sought to overthrow the government by killing Batista.

[5] The plan of attack, as explained by Faure Chomón Mediavilla, was to secure the Presidential Palace by a commando of fifty men (46 participated) and simultaneously support the operation by one hundred men occupying the radio station Radio Reloj at the Radiocentro CMQ Building to announce the death of Batista.

[2] The attack at Radio Reloj, located in the Radiocentro CMQ Building at Calle 23 and L in El Vedado, was led by José Antonio Echeverría who was accompanied among others, by Fructuoso Rodríguez, Joe Westbrook, Raúl Diaz Argüelles, and Julio García Olivera.

While they went up to the transmission booth, the driver concentrated on preventing the car from going out, and I went out with the machine gun to ensure the return without mishap.

With the crash, I fell to the ground, but I remember how José Antonio had the impulse to open the door shooting at the cops.

[14] Killed at the Presidential Palace were Menelao Mora Morales, 52, Carlos Gutíerrez Menoyo (brother of Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo), 34, José Luis Gómez Wangüemert, 31, José Briñas Garcia, 26, Ubaldo (Waldo) Diaz Fuentes, 28, Abelardo Rodriguez Mederos, 30 (driver of one of the cars), José Castellanos Valdes, (alias "Ventrecha"), 35, Evelio Prieto Guillaume, 33, Adolfo Delgado, Eduardo Panizo Bustos, 32, Pedro Esperon, 45, Reinaldo León Llera, 39, Norberto Hernández Nodal, 45, Pedro Nulasco Monzón, 30, Pedro Tellez Valdes, 37, Mario Casañas Díaz, 28, Asterlo Enls Masa de Armas, 25, Gerardo Medina Candentey, Carlos Manuel Pérez Domingues, 45, Angel Salvador González González, 54, Adolfo Raúl Delgado Rodriguez, 29, Ramón Alraro Betancourt, 36, Celestino Pacheco, Eduardo Domingues Aguilar, 50, Pedro Zayden Rivera, 25, Luis Felipe Almeida Hernandez, 35, José Hernández, Salvador Alfaro, and Ormani Arenado Llonch.

), Orlando Manrique, Orlando Lamadrid Velazco, Sergio Pereda Velazco, Santiago Aguero, Manuel Toranzo, Ricardo Olmedo (injured during attack; later shot for attempting to kill Fidel Castro), 40, Faure Chomón, Antonio Castell Valdes, Juan Gualberto Valdes, José M. Olivera, Marcos Leonel Remigio González, Juan José Alfonso Zuñiga, Evelio Álvarez, and Luís Goicochea.

HAVANA, April 7—Thousands of persons marched to the Presidential Palace this afternoon to signify their support of President Fulgencio Batista.

Representatives of labor, commerce, industry, Government, political parties and supporters of the Administration filled the park in front of the palace and all adjacent streets.

Placards and banners carried by the marchers proclaimed approval of General Batista's policies, his public works program and his efforts to suppress the revolutionary activities of his enemies.

[17] On January 22, 1959, Fidel Castro explained to journalists gathered in the Copa Room of the Havana Riviera hotel, among other topics, that hitting up, "golpear arriba," was one of the "false concepts about the revolution" because "tyranny is not a man; tyranny is a system (...) We were never supporters of tyrannicide or military coups, [which tended] to inculcate the people a complex of impotence "[3] A few months earlier Castro had reprimanded Guevara for having signed a pact with Rolando Cubela, Chomon's lieutenant in the DR-13-3 guerrilla in Escambray mountains, the "Pacto del Pedrero".

There is no sense in raising a small group whose intentions and ambitions we know so well, and which in the future will be a source of problems "[3]The failure of the attacks led to a widespread police crackdown on anti-Batista militants, often involving extrajudicial killings of revolutionaries, regardless of whether they were armed or fighting back.

On April 20, 1957, four unarmed DRE revolutionaries who were previously involved in the attack were shot and killed by Havana police as they attempted to flee their apartment safehouse during a raid.

The event led to widespread criticism of the police and, after the revolution, resulted in the arrest, trial and execution (1964) of Marcos Rodriguez (Marquitos), another revolutionary who betrayed the four men.